I agree with eyejaybee. This is the the worst novel in the Alms for Oblivion series. None of the charachters are sympathetic and I didn't really care what happened. Perhaps this is what Raven thought of the groves of academe. ( )

This is the seventh volume in Raven's Alms for Oblivion series, and possibly the weakest so far. I suppose that part of the problem was that, paradoxically, it simply seemed more dated than its predecessors. Most of the familiar characters at least merit a mention through Fielding Gray, Somerset Lloyd James and Captain Detterling make only the briefest of cameo appearances.

The novel is set in Lancaster College, Cambridge, during the heady days of student protest in the late 1960s, and revolves around the College's treatment of a sudden windfall of £250,000 (then a huge sum). Very fwe of the principal characters in this volume invite any empathetic response.

The Provost, Robert Constable, is an egregious character, wrapped up in consideration of his own self-importance, taking time to note down in detail all his decisions and the rationale behind them, in readiness for his retirement when he plans to produce exhaustive memoirs. The protestors are all portrayed most unsympathetically, and even Tom Llewellyn, previously one of the more likeable character, comes across as self-centred and unnecessarily remote. The only character who strikes the reader as of any worth is Hetta Frith, girlfriend of star student Hugh Balliston.

Having read the sequence before I know that this book merely represents a temporary blip, and that normal service will soon be resumed,but I had forgotten quite how disappointing this one was.

Bring back Fielding Gray! ( )