# David Rayvern Allen

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{{Short description|Cricket writer and broadcaster}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox person
| name          = <!-- include middle initial, if not specified in birth_name -->
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| alt           = <!-- descriptive text for use by speech synthesis (text-to-speech) software -->
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| birth_name    = <!-- only use if different from 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](/source/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](/source/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](/source/Prix_Italia) for ''Who Pays the Piper'', a collaboration with [Richard Stilgoe](/source/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](/source/Streatham), [London](/source/London), and went to school at [Sir Walter St John's School](/source/Sir_Walter_St_John's_Grammar_School_for_Boys), [Battersea](/source/Battersea).<ref name=TG/> He gained external music diplomas from the [Royal Academy of Music](/source/Royal_Academy_of_Music) and the [Guildhall School of Music and Drama](/source/Guildhall_School_of_Music_and_Drama) in London.<ref name=TG/>

Allen spent his working life as a radio producer with the [BBC](/source/BBC), working on a wide range of programmes before retiring in 1993.<ref name=WCA>"Obituaries", ''[Wisden](/source/Wisden_Cricketers'_Almanack)'' 2015, p. 175.</ref> Later, as a member of the [MCC's](/source/Marylebone_Cricket_Club) 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](/source/Wisden_Cricketers'_Almanack)'' 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](/source/Who_Could_Ask_for_Anything_More%3F_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](/source/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](/source/BBC_Books) {{ISBN|978-0563203438}}
*''Arlott on Wine'' (1987) {{ISBN|978-0006370611}} (with [John Arlott](/source/John_Arlott))
*''Peter Pan and Cricket'' (1988) Constable & Co {{ISBN|0 09 467630 5}}
*''Sir Aubrey: A Biography of [C. Aubrey Smith](/source/C._Aubrey_Smith) - England Cricketer, West End Actor, Hollywood Film Star'' (1st 1982), [J. W. McKenzie](/source/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](/source/Guinness_Publishing) {{ISBN|978-0851124858}}
*''Arlott: The Authorised Biography'' (2004) {{ISBN|978-1845130022}}
*''Jim: The Life of [E. W. Swanton](/source/E._W._Swanton)'' (2004) {{ISBN|978-1854109002}}
*''The Second Lord's Cricket Ground: Home of MCC, 1811-1813'' (2006) [MCC](/source/Marylebone_Cricket_Club)<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](/source/cantabile_(group)) with guests [Rory Bremner](/source/Rory_Bremner), [Tim Rice](/source/Tim_Rice), [Richard Stilgoe](/source/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}}

{{Authority control}}

{{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

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [David Rayvern Allen](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Rayvern_Allen) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Rayvern_Allen?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.