Simon Raven - Doctors Wear Scarlet

Copyright & Information

Doctors Wear Scarlet

First published in 1960

Estate of Simon Raven; House of Stratus 1960-2011

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without the prior permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

The right of Simon Raven to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted.

This edition published in 2011 by House of Stratus, an imprint of

Stratus Books Ltd., Lisandra House, Fore Street, Looe,

Cornwall, PL13 1AD, UK.

Typeset by House of Stratus.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library and the Library of Congress.

		EAN		ISBN		Edition
1842321803	9781842321805	Print
0755129784	9780755129782	Kindle
0755129946	9780755129942	Epub

This is a fictional work and all characters are drawn from the author's imagination.

Any resemblance or similarities to persons either living or dead are entirely coincidental.

www.houseofstratus.com

Born in 1927 into a middle class household, Simon Raven became both an outrageous figure and an acclaimed writer and novelist. His father inherited a hosiery business and did not have to work, his mother was an internationally successful athlete. The young Simon, however, viewed the household as 'respectable, prying, puritanical, penny-pinching, and joyless'.

Initial education was through attending Cordwalles Preparatory School, near Camberley, Surrey, where he later claimed to have been 'deftly and very agreeably' seduced by the games master. From there he went on to Charterhouse, but was eventually expelled in 1945 for serial homosexuality. Nonetheless, he still managed to wangle his way into King's College, Cambridge, to read classics, after a two year gap to complete his national service in the Parachute Regiment.

Raven had loved classics from an early age and read daily in the original, often translating from Latin to Greek to English, or any combination thereof.

At Cambridge, he probably felt completely at home for the first time in his life. In his own words, 'nobody minded what you did in bed, or what you said about God'. This was civilised to his mind and he was also later to write, in a somewhat fatalistic manner: 'we aren't here for long, and when we do go, that's that. Finish. So, for God's sake, enjoy yourself now - and sod anyone who tries to stop you.' Despite revelling in Cambridge life, or perhaps because of it, Raven fell heavily into debt for the first time whilst there and also faced his first real responsibility. Susan Kilner, a fellow undergraduate was expecting his child and in 1951 they married. He took little interest in the marriage, however, and they were divorced some six years later.

He also failed to submit a thesis needed to support an offered fellowship, so fled both Cambridge and his marriage for the army, where he was commissioned into the King's Own Shropshire Light Infantry. After service in Germany and Kenya, during which time he set up a brothel for his men to use, he was posted to regimental headquarters in Shropshire. It was here that debt once again forced a change in direction after he lost considerable sums at the local racetrack.

Resigning his commission so as to avoid being court-martialled, he turned to writing having won over a publisher who agreed to pay him weekly in cash, and also pick up bills for sustenance and drink. Moving to Deal in Kent he embarked upon producing a prodigious array of works which over the years included novels, essays, reviews; film scripts, radio and television plays and the scripts for television series, notably The Pallisers and Edward and Mrs Simpson . He lived in modest surroundings within rented accommodation and confined many of his excesses to London visits where his earning were dissipated quickly on food, drink and gambling not forgetting sex which continued to feature as a major indulgence. He once wrote that the major advantage of belonging to the Reform Club in London was the presence opposite of a first class massage parlour.

In all, Simon Raven produced over twenty five novels and hundreds of other pieces, his finest achievements being reckoned to be a ten volume saga of English upper-class life, entitled Alms for Oblivion , from 1959-76 and the First Born of Egypt Series from 1984-92.

He was a conundrum; being both sophisticated and reckless; talented in the extreme yet regarding himself as not being particularly creative; but not applying this modesty (if that's what it was) to his general behaviour, which was sometimes immodest beyond all reasonable bounds. He was exceedingly generous towards his friends; yet didn't think twice about the position of creditors when getting into debt; was jovial, loyal and good company, but was unable to sustain a family life. He would drink like an advanced alcoholic in the evenings, but was ready to resume work promptly the following morning. He was sexually indiscriminate, but generally preferred the company of men. As a youth he possessed good looks, but a general abuse of his body in adulthood soon saw that wain.

Simon Raven died in 2001, his legacy being his writing which during his lifetime received high praise from critics and readers alike. He was a 'one-off', whose works will continue to delight readers for generations to come.

At certain stages in this story the holders of actual offices Princes, Bishops or Headmasters appear briefly on the scene. It is not to be inferred that I intend portraits of those who are the present holders of such offices. The Headmaster of Eton, for example, who appears at the Michaelmas Feast, is a generalised figure who stands for all headmasters whatever; he is not my old and respected acquaintance, Mr Robert Birley.

SR

The Provost

and Fellows of Lancaster College, Cambridge

Request the Pleasure of the Company of

MAJOR ANTHONY SEYMOUR, MA

At the Annual Michaelmas Feast

To be Celebrated on October 31st, 1959

at Half Past Seven OClock

Evening Dress with Decorations

Doctors Wear Scarlet

R.S.V.P.

Chimes and Meadows

One evening in the May of last year, one of those evenings which are so blue and beautiful that you start thinking everything will be all right forever, I came home to my flat in Chester Square at about ten oclock and found Tyrrel sitting by the window. He was reading a translation of Cavafis and looking very young and tired.

Im sorry, Mr Seymour, he said. Then he produced an identity card which said he was Inspector John Tyrrel of the Metropolitan Police.

How did you get in?

Im sorry, sir, he said again. The caretaker I showed him my card.

My telephone numbers in the book, I said. As far as Im concerned the police can ring up for appointments just like anybody else.