David Rayvern Allen

Cricket writer and broadcaster

David Rayvern Allen

Born| (1938-02-05)5 February 1938
Died| 9 October 2014(2014-10-09) (aged 76)
Nationality| British
Occupation(s)| Cricket writer and historian, radio producer, presenter and speaker

David Leonard Rayvern Allen (5 February 1938 – 9 October 2014)[1] was a cricket writer and historian, as well as a radio producer and presenter, a speaker and a musician.[2][3][4] His radio productions won awards including the 1991 Prix Italia for Who Pays the Piper, a collaboration with Richard Stilgoe.[5] He died aged 76 in 2014.[6]

## Life and career

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Allen was born in Streatham, London, and went to school at Sir Walter St John's School, Battersea.[1] He gained external music diplomas from the Royal Academy of Music and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London.[1]

Allen spent his working life as a radio producer with the BBC, working on a wide range of programmes before retiring in 1993.[7] Later, as a member of the MCC's Arts and Library committee, he was largely responsible for the club's Audio Archive Project, a collection of several hundred interviews with cricket people; he conducted more than a hundred of the interviews himself.[7]

He won several awards for his cricket biographies.[1] His Wisden obituary said of them that he was "conscientious, readable, judicious" and that he "did not flinch from the less agreeable aspects of his subjects' characters".[7]

He married Rosemary Clark in 1966. They had two daughters.[1]

## Works

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### Radio

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* King Vidor profile BBC Radio 1978 (presenter)
* Billy Wilder profile BBC Radio 1978 (interviewer)
* Who Could Ask for Anything More? A Celebration of Ira Gershwin BBC Radio 2 1996 (producer)[8]

### With Richard Stilgoe

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* Used Notes[9]
* Music on the Brain[9]
* The Singing Wheelchair[9]
* Hamburger Weekend (1984)[9]
* Who Pays the Piper (1991)[9][10]

### Cricket-related (partial list)

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* A Song for Cricket (1981) ISBN 978-0720712872
* The "Punch" Book of Cricket (1985) ISBN 978-0246123848
* Cricket on the Air: A Selection from Fifty Years of Radio Broadcasts (1985) BBC Books ISBN 978-0563203438
* Arlott on Wine (1987) ISBN 978-0006370611 (with John Arlott)
* Peter Pan and Cricket (1988) Constable & Co ISBN 0 09 467630 5
* Sir Aubrey: A Biography of C. Aubrey Smith \- England Cricketer, West End Actor, Hollywood Film Star (1st 1982), J. W. McKenzie, (2nd 1987), ISBN 978-0947821197;[11] augmented edition: limited to 150 (2005),[12] 2010: ISBN 0947821198[13]
* The Guinness Book of Cricket Extras (1988) (with Honor Head), Guinness Publishing ISBN 978-0851124858
* Arlott: The Authorised Biography (2004) ISBN 978-1845130022
* Jim: The Life of E. W. Swanton (2004) ISBN 978-1854109002
* The Second Lord's Cricket Ground: Home of MCC, 1811-1813 (2006) MCC[14]
* Songs of Cricket (2011) mentor for this Signum CD by cantabile - the London Quartet with guests Rory Bremner, Tim Rice, Richard Stilgoe, Alex L'Estrange, Eliza Lumley and Chris Hatt

### Other

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* Punches on the Page: A Boxing Anthology (1998) ISBN 978-1851589876
* Living with London (2012) Methuen ISBN 978-0413777393 (with Nick Botting)

## References

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1. ^ a b c d e Michael Down "David Rayvern Allen obituary", The Guardian, 26 October 2014
2. ^ "English-Speaking Union Hosts Lecture"[permanent dead link] ENCToday.com March 20, 2007
3. ^ "Book of the Year 2011 Winner Announced" Archived 2012-02-05 at the Wayback Machine The Cricket Society
4. ^ "Eleven Lords a-batting"
5. ^ Prix Italia winners 1949-2010 Archived 2013-10-22 at the Wayback Machine RAI
6. ^ "Cricket historian Rayvern Allen dies". 13 October 2014.
7. ^ a b c "Obituaries", Wisden 2015, p. 175.
8. ^ Staff writer (5 December 1996). "Who Could Ask for Anything More? BBC Radio 2, 7 December 1996 19.30". Radio Times. No. 3802\. p. 122. Retrieved 5 March 2018.
9. ^ a b c d e Richard Stilgoe website
10. ^ Who Pays the Piper BBC Radio 2 listings 1991
11. ^ Allen, David Rayvern (1987). Sir Aubrey: A Biography of C. Aubrey Smith - England Cricketer, West End Actor, Hollywood Film Star [Illustrated] [Paperback]. J.W. McKenzie. ISBN 978-0947821197.
12. ^ Sir Aubrey. 2005.
13. ^ Allen, David Rayvern (2010). Sir Aubrey. J.W. McKenzie. ISBN 978-0947821197.
14. ^ MCC Publications Archived 2012-09-27 at the Wayback Machine

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