Simon Raven

Simon Raven was an prolific English author known for writing literary fiction. The London born author attended Charterhouse and was infamously expelled for homosexual activity in 1945. However, he has claimed that his games master had seduced him when he was just nine and that it was an unalloyed, pleasurable experience.

The best place to start is the Alms for Oblivion series, the earliest of Simon Raven's multi-book series: it opens with The Rich Pay Late (1964) and runs to 10 books across 1964–1976, ending with The Survivors (1976). Simon Raven's other series stand alone, so they can be read in any order.

Simon Raven has 43 books catalogued in this guide, published between 1959 and 2025. 21 of them belong to 3 named series — the largest being the Alms for Oblivion series with 10 books — and 22 are standalone titles, collections or anthologies.

Read each series in publication order — the numbered entries in each series follow the year each book first appeared. Simon Raven's series do not depend on one another, so they can be started in any order; by start date they are Alms for Oblivion (1964–1976, 10 books), The First-Born of Egypt (1984–1992, 7 books) and The Valancourt Book of Horror Stories (2016–2020, 4 books).

This guide splits Simon Raven's 43 books into 3 named series and 22 titles that stand alone or appear only in collections: Alms for Oblivion (10 books, 1964–1976); The First-Born of Egypt (7 books, 1984–1992); The Valancourt Book of Horror Stories (4 books, 2016–2020).