Simon Raven wrote the ascerbic novelist who wrote the Alms for Oblivion series of novels published in the 1960s and 1970s. The 10 volumes were a sharply satirical chronicle of British upper-class life, featuring a continuing cast of characters who first meet at an exclusive English school. Simon Raven wrote 34 novels in all and was also an essayist and screenwriter. In personal life he was known as a hedonist and a cheerful cad; in one well-known incident he received a wire from his estranged wife reading "Wife and baby starving send money soonest," and sent the reply: "Sorry no money suggest eat baby."

Simon Raven was credited with writing "additional dialogue" for the 1969 James Bond film On Her Majesty's Secret Service... Simon Raven is no relation to Raven Symone.