Welcome
Welcome
This is the official website of Richard Perceval Graves – author, lecturer, poet and ghostwriter.
My Own Story
My Own Story
- Volume 1: A Very English Childhood (1945-1954)
- Volume 2: A Taste of Sparta (1954-1959)
- Volume 3: The Empire Beckons (1959-1964)
Richard Perceval Graves’s memoirs give an evocative picture of what it was like growing up in that vanished world of the 1940s, and 1950s . In due course they will be available both in print and online. You can already order or preorder a copy of Volume 1. And for a taste of what is on offer, you can download a free copy of the text of the first 29 pages.
Nicky Samuel: My Life and Loves
Nicky Samuel: My Life and Loves
Richard Perceval Graves has ghostwritten the extraordinary story of heiress and socialite Nicky Samuel (1951-2019). Based on extensive interviews both with Nicky herself, and with many of her friends, it tells the story of how Nicky was caught up in the glamorous world both of the ‘Swinging London’ of the 1960s and of the New York and Paris of Andy Warhol and others in the 1970s.
My Bibliography
My Bibliography
From 1976 to date
I have worked mainly as a literary biographer, my works including lives of The Powys Brothers, Richard Hughes, my uncle Robert Graves, and T. E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia).
About
Richard Perceval Graves is the acclaimed author of more than 20 published books including biographies of T.E. Lawrence, A. E.Housman, John Cowper Powys and JCP’s brothers Theodore and Llewelyn, Richard Hughes, and his uncle Robert Graves.
He has also lectured at leading literary festivals including those at Cheltenham, Hay-on-Wye, Hull and Toronto; and some of his lectures now appear on YouTube.
He has also ghosted the life of Nicky Samuel, a socialite whose life is a perfect introduction to that exotic world of the 1960s
He is now working on a memoir of his own: not because he is himself a person of great importance, but because he hopes to show what it was like being brought up as a member of the professional classes in that far-off world of the 1940s and 1950s.
Lectures
Richard delivered his final lecture in Sneem, Co. Cork, Eire, in the late autumn of 2023. While he is no longer available for delivering lectures in person, these pages link to descriptions of the lectures he has given over the years. In addition, two of his original lectures already appear on YouTube, and in due course film versions of all the rest and upload them to YouTube, with links from the descriptions on this site.
Testimonials
Testimonial 04
I write to thank you once again for your talk… It was as insightful as it was imaginative and presented an ‘internal view’ of ….. not often encountered in the rather drier classroom studies. The Sixth Form was… attentive throughout… Subsequently, many have expressed their enjoyment of the talk to me..
Testimonial 03
Your lecture was most stimulating and it was very well received – to listen to poetry being read and evaluated is…..[a] genuinine mind sharpener.
Testimonial 07
Your presentation….was just brilliant. [We]…were riveted. It was a most professional and fascinating presentation.
Testimonial 05
Your analysis of the literature was fascinating and profoundly insightful. Moreover you managed to hold the concentration of your audience so powerfully. No mean feat…
Testimonial 01
Thank you for coming! The boys and [staff] were unanimous on the subject of their enjoyment of your lecture. It was pitched exactly right.
"My aim as a lecturer is not just to tell my audience about the past but to make it live again in front of their eyes."
Bibliography & Memoirs
Richard Perceval Graves is the author of more than 20 published works. Working mainly as a literary biographer, his published works include history, guides to computer programming and a guide for fellow-authors.
