David Rayvern Allen

{{Short description|Cricket writer and broadcaster}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} {{Infobox person | name =  | image =  | alt =  | caption = | birth_name =  | birth_date = {{Birth date|df=y|1938|02|05}} | birth_place = | death_date = {{Death date and age|df=y|2014|10|09|1938|02|05}} | death_place = | other_names = | occupation = Cricket writer and historian, radio producer, presenter and speaker | years_active = | known_for = | notable_works = }} '''David Leonard Rayvern Allen''' (5 February 1938 – 9 October 2014)<ref name=TG>Michael Down [https://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/oct/27/david-rayvern-allen "David Rayvern Allen obituary"], ''The Guardian'', 26 October 2014</ref> was a cricket writer and historian, as well as a radio producer and presenter, a speaker and a musician.<ref>[http://www.enctoday.com/articles/colonial-4127-allen-branch.html "English-Speaking Union Hosts Lecture"]{{dead link|date=November 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} ENCToday.com March 20, 2007</ref><ref>[http://www.cricketsociety.com/BOTY2011/winner.html "Book of the Year 2011 Winner Announced"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120205163012/http://www.cricketsociety.com/BOTY2011/winner.html |date=2012-02-05 }} The Cricket Society</ref><ref>[http://www.thecnj.com/review/061506/books061506_01.htm "Eleven Lords a-batting"]</ref> His radio productions won awards including the 1991 Prix Italia for ''Who Pays the Piper'', a collaboration with Richard Stilgoe.<ref>[http://www.prixitalia.rai.it/2010/pdf/WINNERS_1949-2010.pdf Prix Italia winners 1949-2010] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131022124024/http://www.prixitalia.rai.it/2010/pdf/WINNERS_1949-2010.pdf |date=2013-10-22 }} RAI</ref> He died aged 76 in 2014.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.lords.org/news/2014/october/cricket-historian-rayvern-allen-dies/|title=Cricket historian Rayvern Allen dies|date=13 October 2014}}</ref>

==Life and career== Allen was born in Streatham, London, and went to school at Sir Walter St John's School, Battersea.<ref name=TG/> He gained external music diplomas from the Royal Academy of Music and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London.<ref name=TG/>

Allen spent his working life as a radio producer with the BBC, working on a wide range of programmes before retiring in 1993.<ref name=WCA>"Obituaries", ''Wisden'' 2015, p. 175.</ref> 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.<ref name=WCA/>

He won several awards for his cricket biographies.<ref name=TG/> 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".<ref name=WCA/>

He married Rosemary Clark in 1966. They had two daughters.<ref name=TG/>

==Works==

===Radio=== *[https://www.bbc.co.uk/archive/hollywood/10248.shtml King Vidor profile] BBC Radio 1978 (presenter) *[https://www.bbc.co.uk/archive/hollywood/10202.shtml Billy Wilder profile] BBC Radio 1978 (interviewer) *''Who Could Ask for Anything More? A Celebration of Ira Gershwin'' BBC Radio 2 1996 (producer)<ref>{{cite news | last = Staff writer | title = Who Could Ask for Anything More? BBC Radio 2, 7 December 1996 19.30 | url = http://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/e3c0e97e6ad74de58103813f344eeaed | work = Radio Times | issue = 3802 | page = 122 | date = 5 December 1996 | access-date = 5 March 2018}}</ref>

===With Richard Stilgoe=== *''Used Notes''<ref name="Stilgoe"/> *''Music on the Brain''<ref name="Stilgoe"/> *''The Singing Wheelchair''<ref name="Stilgoe"/> *''Hamburger Weekend'' (1984)<ref name="Stilgoe">[http://richardstilgoe.com/radio.html Richard Stilgoe website]</ref> *''Who Pays the Piper'' (1991)<ref name="Stilgoe"/><ref>[http://www.radiolistings.co.uk/programmes/w/wh/who_pays_the_piper.html ''Who Pays the Piper''] BBC Radio 2 listings 1991</ref>

===Cricket-related (partial list)=== *''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}};<ref>{{cite book|last=Allen|first=David Rayvern |title=Sir Aubrey: A Biography of C. Aubrey Smith - England Cricketer, West End Actor, Hollywood Film Star [Illustrated] [Paperback]|year=1987|publisher=J.W. McKenzie |isbn=978-0947821197}}</ref> augmented edition: limited to 150 (2005),<ref>{{cite book|title=Sir Aubrey|url=http://www.mckenzie-cricket.co.uk/stock.php?quicksearch=Sir+Aubrey&recs=&searchf=go|year=2005}}</ref> 2010: {{ISBN|0947821198}}<ref>{{cite book|title=Sir Aubrey|year=2010|isbn=978-0947821197 | last1=Allen | first1=David Rayvern | publisher=J.W. McKenzie }}</ref> *''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<ref>[http://www.lords.org/history/mcc-publications/ MCC Publications] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120927031941/http://www.lords.org/history/mcc-publications/ |date=2012-09-27 }}</ref> *''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=== *''Punches on the Page: A Boxing Anthology'' (1998) {{ISBN|978-1851589876}} *''Living with London'' (2012) Methuen {{ISBN|978-0413777393}} (with Nick Botting)

==References== {{Reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rayvern Allen, David}} Category:1938 births Category:2014 deaths Category:People from Streatham Category:People educated at Sir Walter St John's Grammar School For Boys Category:British radio producers Category:Cricket writers Category:English biographers Category:20th-century English businesspeople