It is the eve of the Suez crisis in the Fifties. Written in the Sixties with the benefit of hindsight of this political crisis, ‘The Rich Pay Late’ by Simon Raven has a modern tone applicable for our Brexit times. Greed, disloyalty, snobbishness are common. First of the ten novels in Raven’s ‘Alms for Oblivion’ series, in which a Dickensian cast of characters overlap with each other’s lives, each book is a self-contained story from the end of the Second World War to 1973.
‘The Rich Pay Late’ opens as Donald Salinger and Jude Holbrook, co-owners of an advertising agency, discuss the purchase of a financial magazine, Strix. Jude is ambitious but without money, Donald has the cash but is cautious. And so starts the combined theme of gambling/business/love in which everyone is for himself and taking calculated risks is a way of life. Structurally, it is an ensemble story rather than concentrating on one central character; Raven introduces characters with short glimpses, some of one paragraph, of people who start off separate from Donald and Jude until their entwined lives are revealed. Not one character is superfluous.
This is a short novel of 250 pages, but intense. Slow, rich, satirical, it portrays a depressing and bleak take on human nature. The blurred story builds and builds as the appalling characters become real; at times a little dry, I persevered and am pleased I did as the pace of the final third was quicker.
The narrative centres around the sale of Strix and subsequently on a political scandal about Strix’s new board member, Peter Morrison MP. When the magazine’s owner receives the offer to buy his company, Morrison’s vote takes on additional importance. But is he a benefit or a liability?
A tale of politics, media, love affairs and betrayal between a network of upper and upper-middle class men and women with names like Vanessa, Somerset and Jude. In places, the dark humour reminds me of Nancy Mitford’s later novels.
There is some discussion amongst reviewers about the correct order in which to read the series, I’m sticking with Raven’s order. Written fourth, he placed this first in his series.
Read more of my book reviews at http://www.sandradanby.com/book-reviews-a-z/ ( )

Raven's deliciously scurrilously roman fleuve continues...
This is the fourth instalment and, once again, Fielding gray (Raven's own avatar) is conspicuous by his absence. In this voume, set in the brief run up to the ill-fated British intervention in Suez in 1956, the central figure is Somerset Lloyd-James, as ambitious and penny-pinching as ever, who thinks that he is weaving an intricate web of deception that will yiled him substantial financial gains along with influence and favour. His ultimate aim is to be offered a safe Conservative constituency, and he considers that the most convenient route to realisng that is to court favour among senior Tories through his editorship of "Strix", a well-regarded politico-financial journal. Lloyd-James develops grandiose ideas about how he might negotiate the sale of the journal netting quick gains for Lord Philby, its disinterested proprietor, with a hefty share coming to himslef as a sort of finder's fee.
To make such a sale he must also find a buyer, and he considers that the rising advertising firm of Salinger and Holbrook might be just the prospective investor he needs. Somerset begins his plotting and at first all seems to go well.
Salinger and Holbrook are two very different characters - Donal Salinger is an easy going, privately wealthy fellow from the fringes of high society (and aspirations for furher elveation) who is happy to let the firm potter on, doing decent work and well-regarded; however, his business partner, Jude Holbrook, is altogether different. he is desperately ambitious and is very eager to purchase "Strix" with a view to bending it to his own atavistic devices. Holbrook's single-minded drive is all-engrossing, and his Machiavellian approach is reminiscent of that of Shakespeare's Richard III, and no-one is allowed to stand in his way.
There a re some wonderful ephemeral characters: Tom Llewellyn, a rather hyperborean academic who produces pellucid political analysis on the rare occasions that he is sober, but who can sink without warning into vitriolic drunken outbursts; Tessie Buttcok, hotel proprietor to the fallen (and occasionally not far from amatuer madam); and Jessica Salinger, former good-time girl, now desperate to become reputable and sedate.
Raven's own prose is as worthy as Llewellyn's and he marshalls his material deftly, never losing the reader's interest.
All in all, very different from Anthony Powell's delightful "Dance to the Music of Time" sequence, but no less worthy of the reader's attention. ( )