Original Michael Frayn

by Michael Frayn, James Fenton (Editor)

This classic collection contains some of the best and funniest pieces of Michael Frayn's work selected and introduced by James Fenton.

226 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2000

About the author

Michael Frayn is an English playwright and novelist. He is best known as the author of the farce Noises Off and the dramas Copenhagen and Democracy. His novels, such as Towards the End of the Morning, Headlong and Spies, have also been critical and commercial successes, making him one of the handful of writers in the English language to succeed in both drama and prose fiction. His works often raise philosophical questions in a humorous context. Frayn's wife is Claire Tomalin, the biographer and literary journalist.

Reviews

[Esther · Rating 3 out of 5]

Collection of his columns for The Guardian and The Observer from throughout the 1960s. Very interesting to read what the prevailing zeitgeist concerns of the time were. Some trivial, some less so but mostly humorous/satirical. Found a first edition in a bookshop last summer, from Westminster City Libraries: Paddington Library, Porchester Road, London. Not stamped ‘withdrawn’ and the date stamps from this 1983 published collection only go up to 1985. So presumably it was stolen or borrowed and never returned? Ah the journeys books may have had over the years, before landing in a secondhand bookshop to be treasured by weirdos like me for two pounds.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book collects the best of Frayn's columns from the Guardian and Observer newspaper, and they're well worth reading if you're into that type of thing. The best of them easily rival Robert Benchley or Woody Allen's New Yorker pieces, and they make you realise just how medicore most of our newspaper humorists are today.

[Julia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very funny and clever man! Most of this is way before my time, but it is still wonderful. Highly recommend the audio version read by Martin Jarvis. Hysterical...