e-Alert #500 – New Publication – David Rayvern Allen. “A Man of Many Parts”

New Publication just announced

Our first publication was in 1990, followed by around 40 or 50 printed catalogues and then our first e-Alert in 2008. Many of you have stuck with us through thick and thin and we are grateful for that. Hopefully we have listed enough variety and quaity to suit everyone.

It is by sheer chance – but seems appropriate – that our 28th new book publication should have arrived from the printers at just this moment. All the details are given below but just for a bit of fun we have put together a video version which can be found on our YouTube channel – if you are interested then just tap the link below or paste it onto your web browser..

Hope you enjoy it!

Mike

DAVID RAYVERN ALLEN “A Man of Many Parts”

by Michael Down

Eulogy by Sir Richard Stilgoe

Boundary Books, 2022. DW, 180pp, full colour illustrations.

The book is produced in a Limited Edition of 100 copies, signed by the author, plus a further 25 copies in a special Deluxe binding and signed by Sir Tim Rice and Sir Richard Stilgoe.

Limited Edition – numbers 26-125 – £50 plus £5 p&p.

Deluxe Edition – numbers 1-25 – £175 plus £5 p&p

David is well known in the cricket book world for writing the official biographies of John Arlott and E W “Jim” Swanton, both of which won the Book of the Year Award. He also wrote other well known books on cricket history – but not many know that he was the author of 40 in total. His closest friend in cricket was John Arlott and the pair worked together on many projects. A worthy and interesting life – but only one of his lives.

David started out as a professional musician and then embarked on a long career as a leading BBC radio producer. He worked with many great names – Orson Welles, Judi Dench, The Who, John Arlott, Tim Rice, Richard Stilgoe and so many more. In all, he produced over 1000 BBC shows including every episode of Friday Night is Music Night. He won over 20 International Awards for his work including the top one – Prix Italia – for Who Pays the Piper? with Richard Stilgoe.

David was a long term Member of MCC, sat for many years on the Arts & Library Committee and did much to help the organisation of the museum and the collection. He invented and single-handedly assembed the MCC Audio Archive whch is now named the David Rayvern Allen Audio Archive.

As well as this, David was one of the top collectors of rare cricket books, artwork and memorabilia.

Shortly before David’s death in 2014, we discussed the idea of a slim little booklet describing his collection. Over the subsequent years my research into his life has produced so much fascinating material that the booklet has grown into a full length biography. It was firstly intended as a memento for his family and friends but will hopefully be of interest to others when they share the broad scope of his life and career.

By far the best bit of the writing is a wonderful eulogy written by Sir Richard Stilgoe who shared so many award-winning projects with DRA.