Most Popular Books by Michael Frayn

Author and playwright Michael Frayn was lauded as one of the funniest newspaper columnists of his generation.

In the quiet cul-de-sac where Keith and Stephen live the only immediate signs of the Second World War are the blackout at night and a single random bombsite. But the two boys start to suspect that all is not what it seems when one day Keith announces a disconcerting discovery: the Germans have infiltrated his own family. And when the secret underground world they have dreamed up emerges from the shadows they find themselves engulfed in mysteries far deeper and more painful than they had bargained for. ''Bernard Shaw couldn''t do it, Henry James couldn''t do it, but the ingenious English author Michael Frayn does do it: write novels and plays with equal success ... Frayn''s novel excels.'' John updike, New Yorker ''A beautifully accomplished, richly nostalgic novel about supposed second-world-war espionage seen through the eyes of a young boy.'' Sunday Times ''Deeply satisfying . . . Frayn has written nothing better.'' Independent

In 1941 the German physicist Werner Heisenberg made a strange trip to Copenhagen to see his Danish counterpart, Niels Bohr. They were old friends and close colleagues, and they had revolutionised atomic physics in the 1920s with their work together on quantum mechanics and the uncertainty principle. But now the world had changed, and the two men were on opposite sides in a world war. The meeting was fraught with danger and embarrassment, and ended in disaster. Why the German physicist Heisenberg went to Copenhagen in 1941 and what he wanted to say to the Danish physicist Bohr are questions which have exercised historians of nuclear physics ever since. In Michael Frayn''s new play Heisenberg meets Bohr and his wife Margrethe once again to look for the answers, and to work out, just as they had once worked out the internal functioning of the atom, how we can ever know why we do what we do. ''Michael Frayn''s tremendous play is a piece of history, an intellectual thriller, a psychological investigation and a moral tribunal in full session.'' Sunday Times

“As finely worked as a Swiss watch and as funny as the human condition permits ... the zigzag brilliance of the text as the clunky lines of the farce-within-a-farce rub against the sharp dialogue of reality.” The Guardian A play-within-a-play following a touring theatre company who are rehearsing and performing a comedy called Nothing On, results in a riotous double-bill of comedic craft and dramatic skill. Hurtling along at breakneck speed it shows the backstage antics as they stumble through the dress-rehearsal at Weston-super-Mare, then on to a disastrous matinee at Ashton-under-Lyne, followed by a total meltdown in Stockton-on-Tees. Michael Frayn''s irresistible, multi-award-winning backstage farce has been enjoyed by millions of people worldwide since it premiered in 1982 and has been hailed as one of the greatest British comedies ever written. Winner of both Olivier and Evening Standard Awards for Best Comedy. This edition features a new introduction by Michael Blakemore.

With wit, charm, and brilliance, this epic work sets out to make sense of our place in the scheme of things. Surveying the spectrum of philosophical concerns from the existence of space and time to relativity and language, Frayn attempts to resolve what he calls "the oldest mystery": the world is what we make of it.

For the first time, Michael Frayn, the "master of what is seriously funny,"* turns his humor and narrative genius on his own family''s story, to re-create the world that made him who he is Whether he is deliriously funny or philosophically profound, as a novelist and a playwright Michael Frayn has concerned himself with the ordinary life lived by erring humans, which is always more extraordinary than people think. In My Father''s Fortune, Frayn reveals the original exemplar of the extraordinary-ordinary life: his father, Tom Frayn. A clever lad, a roofing salesman with a winning smile and a racetrack vocabulary, Tom Frayn emerged undaunted from a childhood spent in two rooms with six other people, all of them deaf. And undaunted he stayed, through German rockets, feckless in-laws, and his own increasing deafness; through the setback of a son as bafflingly slow-witted as the father was quick on his feet; through the shockingly sudden tragedy that darkened his life. Tom Frayn left his son little more than three watches and two ink-and-wash prints. But the true fortune he passed on was the great humor and spirit revealed in this beguiling memoir. * Anthony Burgess

Written in a form of protagonist''s letters to his Australian friend, this novel is a subtle and psychologically exact depiction of the moral degradation of an ordinary man afflicted with envy.

"This long-running hit starred Sam Waterson on Broadway as an urban architect whose attempts to improve humanity by the environments he creates, only leads to chaos when the high-rise boom goes bust and two close friends are caught in the cross-hairs."--Page 4 of cover.

"Michael Frayn has the rare ability to construct farcical comedy around philosophical principles and the laughs and the ideas effortlessly intermesh" (Guardian) Four old friends sit down for a quiet evening together. But they are harassed by various bells, sirens, buzzers, warblers, beepers and cheepers, all trying to warn them of something. What are these electronic voices trying to tell them? Can they understand the mysterious disasters before disaster strikes? It''s a race against time - because there are seven more plays and twenty more characters still to come before the evening is through, plus a lot more strange noises - and increasingly desperate calls from eleven separate pay phones...

First published in 1974 and republished following the success of Frayn''s masterly work of philosophy, The Human Touch, Constructions is a dazzling, thought-provoking and fascinating book which explores some of the great problems in philosophy and of everyday life.

Tucked away in a sleepy newspaper department, covering nature notes and crosswords, Dyson dreams of liberation and recognition. When a chance occurs to appear on TV, he eagerly prepares to greet the celebrity life.

From the bestselling author of Headlong and Spies, "an unconditional triumph" (The Washington Post Book World) For fifteen years, ever since the taciturn civil servant Summerchild fell to his death from a window in the Admiralty, there have been rumors. So Brian Jessel, a young member of the Cabinet Office, is diverted from his routine work and asked to prepare an internal report. Slowly, from the archives in the Cabinet Office Registry, Jessel begins to reconstruct Summerchild''s last months. It begins to emerge that, at a time when America had just put men on the moon, the British were involved in an even bolder project, and that Summerchild was investigating a phenomenon as common as sunlight, but as powerful and dangerous as any of the forces that modern science has known. The secret world into which Brian Jessel stumbles turns out to be even more extraordinary than his department had feared.

Uncumber lives in a dystopian world where all humanity is divided in two - the Insiders and the Outsiders. The Insiders are privileged, with their every need catered to by somatic drugs, three-dimensional holovision and prolonged life. Uncumber lives in this luxurious world and is told that she must never go out into the dust and disease of the real world. Uncumber, however, is haunted by a restless and inquisitive spirit. When she falls in love with an Outsider, she decides to go exploring. . . Michael Frayn is the award-winning author of Headlong, which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize, Spies, which won the Whitbread Best Novel Award, and Skios, which was longlisted for the Booker Prize. ''A fairy tale of the future. . . Frayn handles his observations and inventions brilliantly'' Guardian

A brilliant exploration of character and conscience from the author of COPENHAGEN, set amid the tensions of 1960s Berlin In Democracy, Michael Frayn once again creates out of the known events of twentieth-century history a drama of extraordinary urgency and subtlety, reimagining the interactions and motivations of Willy Brandt as he became chancellor of West Germany in 1966 and those of his political circle, including Günter Guillaume, a functionary who became Brandt''s personal assistant-and who was eventually exposed as an East German spy in a discovery that helped force Brandt from office. But what circumstances allowed Brandt to become the first left-wing chancellor in forty years? And why, given his progressive policies, did the East German secret police feel it necessary to plant a spy in his office and risk bringing down his government? Michael Frayn writes in his postscript to the play, "Complexity is what the play is about: the complexity of human arrangements and of human beings themselves, and the difficulties that this creates in both shaping and understanding our actions."

A mobile phone is something that gives you the whole world at the touch of your finger - but this book is even better. Magic Mobile is a collection of thirty ''pre-loaded'' new text files in a no-fuss, non-digital entertainment system. In a volume that succeeds Matchbox Theatre and Pocket Playhouse, each of these short comic masterpieces displays Michael Frayn''s unique genius in forever capturing life''s latest absurdities. Tune in to the BBC Radio 4 adaptation of Magic Mobile 13 May, 20 May, 27 May, 3 June. Michael Frayn''s eleven novels include Towards the End of the Morning, Headlong, Spies and Skios. His seventeen plays range from Noises Off to Copenhagen.

This varied collection of short sketches and monologues by the author of NOISES OFF, BENEFACTORS and others is essential to any actor''s library. Most pieces are comic and all are perfect for classes and auditions. Contents: At the Sign of the Rupture Belt (2m, 1f) Blots (Monologue) Confession (Monologue) Do You Think You Are? (1m, 1f) Glycerine (1m, 1f) Head to Head (Monologue) Heaven (1m, 1f) Listen to This (1m, 1f) A Little Peace and Quiet (1m, 1f) The Messenger''

One of the funniest writers of his generation, Michael Frayn has been writing humorous newspaper columns since 1959, principally for the "Guardian" and "Observer", and originally came to prominence as the thrice weekly purveyor of these short, surreal, razor-sharp explorations of human foibles, sex, politics, manners, and the events of the day. This volume brings together 110 of his finest and funniest pieces from over the years, selected and introduced by Michael Frayn himself, and is an unmissable treat for the many fans of his unique comic voice, as well as a revelation for fans of the award-winning literary novels and plays of his later career.

Four one-act comedies. Originally performed by Vanessa Redgrave and Richard Briers.

Roman.

"One of theatre''s subtlest, most sophisticated minds" (The Times) One spring morning a quiet, shy man in his sixties sets out from Land''s End to walk the length of his native land. He has never walked more than a dozen miles in his life before, his health is uncertain, his boots are new, and he is too diffident to talk to anyone he meets along the way. His slow, solitary progress up the spine of Britain is watched by an unseen audience - his family and friends at home. How far will he get before he is forced to give up? Is he being heroic or merely selfish? As the days of his absence go by the old alliances and quarrels inside the family shift and alter. What emerges is a story about the arbitrariness of human endeavour and about the tenacious complexity of human relationships; about one man''s glimpse of the country he lives in; about courage and about love. First and Last was directed by Alan Dossor in a production for BBC television, with Joss Ackland as the walker.

Winner of the Evening Standard Best Comedy Award after its long run at the Hampstead Theatre and on the West End in 1975, Alphabetical Order is set in the library of a provincial newspaper where battle is joined between the forces of order and chaos, between arid organisation in the person of the new library assistant, Leslie, and humane confusion in the person of Lucy, the much-loved resident librarian. Drawing on his experience as a journalist, Frayn draws his gallery of characters with the hilarious accuracy which can only come from first-hand experience. This edition features the author''s revised version of the script presented at the Hampstead Theatre in April 2009.

At a Moscow University, an English graduate student''s life becomes a sore and baffling series of Chinese-box adventures when he becomes interpreter to a mysterious stranger.

Michael Frayn is one of the great playwrights of our time, enjoying international acclaim and prestige. This anthology contains three of Michael Frayn''s best-known titles: Copenhagen, Democracy and Afterlife, as well as an introduction by the author and a chronology of his work.

Academic Martin Clay is asked by a boorish country squire to assess his paintings. Clay spots what he suspects is a Bruegel and so begins a tale of lies and concealment as he schemes to separate the painting from its owner.

The new collection from the author of the Booker-shortlisted novel Headlong and the internationally acclaimed play Copenhagen Here: "about time, space and life...A touching, brilliant construction. It''s both deeply thought and deeply felt'' (Sunday Times); Now You Know: "Frayn''s light but serious, marvellous new play, about official and unofficial secrets, about idle curiosity and investigative purpose" (Observer); La Belle Vivette: "Frayn''s elegant libretto... Michael Frayn has made an Offenbach opera a farce to be reckoned with...a razor-sharp reworking" (Mail on Sunday) Michael Frayn was born in 1933 in the suburbs of London and began his career as a reporter on the Guardian, before becoming a columnist. His novels include The Tin Men, The Russian Interpreter, Towards the End of Morning and The Trick of It. He has written a number of plays for television and the stage, including translations of Chekhov and smash hits such as his screenplay Clockwise and his plays Donkeys'' Years, Noises Off, Alarms and Excursions and Copenhagen. Deborah Levy "does not deal with realism, she does not deal with magic realism, rather she draws out a new territory, and if we follow we will find ourselves suspended over views we have not seen before" Jeanette Winterson, Observer

"One of theatre''s subtlest, most sophisticated minds" (The Times) Alphabetical Order: "A comic essay about two types of woman... a very intelligent comedy because of its classic simplicity, and unusual in the way that the two types of women do not become stereotypes" (Daily Telegraph); Donkeys'' Years, a satire on the establishment and British Institutions "Gorgeous farce, all the funnier for emerging from credible aspirations and natural anxieties... the play is richer and cannier than we expect farces to be." (New Statesman); Clouds, is a satire on government sponsored trips and a portrait of sexual jealousy,"it is poignantly and unerringly funny" (Guardian); Make and Break is a satirical commentary on British corporate interests abroad "Full of pain, ruthless observation, and a sense of humour which is sardonic, lunatic and warm" (Sunday Times); Noises Off - the West End hit play about a company of actors stepping from a sex farce into their own nightmarish lives backstage "A very intelligent joke about the fragility of all forms of drama...a pulverisingly funny play." (Guardian) "All of these plays are attempts to show something of the world, not to change it or to promote any particular idea of it. That''s not to say there are no ideas in them. In fact what they are all about in one way or another is the way in which we impose our ideas upon the world around us...it might be objected that one single theme is a somewhat sparse provision to sustain five separate and dissimilar plays. I can only say that it is a theme which has occupied philosophers for over two thousand years and one which is likely to occupy them for at least two thousand more..."(Michael Frayn)

Adaptation of Chekhov''s play known as Platonov or A Country Scandal. Romantic farce about fickle schoolmaster in 19th century Russia.

"One of theatre''s subtlest, most sophisticated minds" (The Times) Now You Know: "Frayn''s light but serious, marvellous play, about official and unofficial secrets, about idle curiosity and investigative purpose" (Observer)

A sophisticated drollery, an educated amusement.--New Statesman

Why not program computers to take over the really dull jobs that human beings have to do - such as praying and behaving morally? At the William Morris Institute of Automation Research they are doing just that to free mankind for the really stimulating and demanding tasks of living today - first and foremost the impending visit of Her Majesty the Queen to open its new wing. . . Michael Frayn is the celebrated author of fifteen plays including Noises Off, Copenhagen and Afterlife. His bestselling novels include Headlong, which was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, Spies, which won the Whitbread Best Novel Award and Skios, which was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize. Tin Men, his first novel, is now a modern classic. Winner of the Somerset Maugham Award it explores computers, technology and automation with customary humour and wit.

The great master of farce turns to an exclusive island retreat for a comedy of mislaid identities, unruly passions, and demented, delicious disorder On the private Greek island of Skios, the high-paying guests of a world-renowned foundation prepare for the annual keynote address, to be given this year by Dr. Norman Wilfred, an eminent authority on the scientific organization of science. He turns out to be surprisingly youthful, handsome, and charming—quite unlike his reputation as dry and intimidating. Everyone is soon eating out of his hands. So, even sooner, is Nikki, the foundation''s attractive and efficient organizer. Meanwhile, in a remote villa at the other end of the island, Nikki''s old friend Georgie has rashly agreed to spend a furtive horizontal weekend with a notorious schemer, who has characteristically failed to turn up. Trapped there with her instead is a pompous, balding individual called Dr. Norman Wilfred, who has lost his whereabouts, his luggage, his temper, and increasingly all sense of reality—indeed, everything he possesses other than the text of a well-traveled lecture on the scientific organization of science. In a spiraling farce about upright academics, gilded captains of industry, ambitious climbers, and dotty philanthropists, Michael Frayn, the farceur "by whom all others must be measured" (CurtainUp), tells a story of personal and professional disintegration, probing his eternal theme of how we know what we know even as he delivers us to the outer limits of hilarity.

Many of the essays collected in The Additional Michael Frayn first appeared in the Guardian and the Observer over a three decade span, from the 1970s to the 1990.

''A man sits in his car at the traffic lights, waiting for them to go green...'' Heaven, the Book of Revelation tells us, is a city of pure gold, 1,500 miles high, and decorated in sapphire, amethyst, and emerald. According to the Koran, it is peopled with immortal youths and bashful virgins, and there are jeweled couches on which to recline and enjoy food and drink. But wouldn''t most of us feel a little out of our element in such a place? What about a Heaven for ordinary, modern people? Howard Baker is waiting at a traffic light when suddenly he finds himself in a strange and wondrous city where he can fly, speak any language, and even design the Matterhorn. As we accompany him on his tour of Heaven, we discover a place with limitless possibilities for leisure and enjoyment but one which also presents moral and intellectual challenges and possibilities for personal growth - the perfect heaven for a decent, respectable, professional man like Howard Baker ... Long regarded as a classic in Great Britain, Michael Frayn''s brilliantly funny fantasy Sweet Dreams (1973) returns to print in the U.S. for the first time in decades in this edition, which features a new introduction by the author. "Frayn is an impeccable writer ... his novel is a kind of Candide - a vividly contemporary Candide - full of the most serious high comedy and the most enormous belly laughs." - New Yorker "Frayn has a most unusual talent. His books seem so deceptively simple, but they linger in the mind for years, and can be re-read with the greatest pleasure. Sweet Dreams is no exception." - Margaret Drabble, New York Times Book Review "May go down in history as one of England''s special contributions to the twentieth century." - Times Literary Supplement