Raymond Gould

Raymond Gould is a fictional character in the political novel "First Among Equals," by Jeffrey Archer. He is a British Labour Party politician who served under Prime Ministers Harold Wilson and James Callaghan.

Gould, a red-haired intellectual from a blue-collar background, reluctantly married when his girlfriend Joyce got pregnant. She miscarried not long after the wedding. Although she always loved him, Gould was bored and resentful of Joyce. He became active in politics, in part, as a way of escaping life at home. Gould was repeatedly unfaithful to Joyce. He once visited a prostitute (fortunately, he avoided the scandal he was sure would result when he rejected the prostitute's blackmail threat), had an affair with a female barrister, and carried on a long-term affair with a vivacious American businesswoman.

Gould rose steadily through the Labour Party, making a name for himself as a highly capable administrator and an expert on economic theory. He served brilliantly as Chancellor of the Exchequer. At the peak of his career, Gould's biggest political rivals were Conservative front-benchers Simon Kerslake and Charles Gurney Seymour. The novel culminates in an extremely close general election in 1991 (it was published in 1984).

Gould became Prime Minister in the original British edition of the novel, as well as the ITV television adaptation which ends with King Charles III inviting him to Buckingham Palace and asking him to form a government. However, in the U.S. edition, Kerslake becomes Prime Minister.