Collected Columns

by Michael Frayn

Playwright and novelist Michael Frayn originally came to prominence as the writer of short, surreal, razor-sharp explorations of human foibles, sex, politics, manners, and the events of the day. Here are 110 of his finest and funniest pieces, selected and introduced by himself. Michael Frayn is the author of plays including Copenhagen, novels including Headlong, and the recent philosophy work The Human Touch.

Genres: Essays

500 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2007

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

[James Klagge · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this b/c I liked Frayn's play Copenhagen, and b/c Frayn once wrote a take-off on Wittgenstein, called "Fog-like Sensations." Both were clever, and the Fog piece was included in this collection. But...it wasn't indicative of the other columns. Of about 130 columns, I only found 7 to be really noteworthy (so, someone should praise my perseverance!). The problem was: the humor (well, humour) was English, and the columns are mostly from the early-mid-1960's, with some from the 90's. In any case, while I could appreciate Frayn's cleverness, they weren't funny to me. Oh, well. I'll stick to his other works.

[Jeff Howells · Rating 2 out of 5]

I normally enjoy reading collections of journalism, they are usually brief and pithy yet easy to read. When I picked this up I knew of Michael Frayn the author & playwright, and vaguely remember his columns in the Guardian in the 90s (although I didn’t read them at that point).
This collection stretches back to his earlier stint on the Guardian (in the late 60s) and his time on the Observer, along with that later period at the Guardian.
Unfortunately the columns fall into the category of ‘humorous’: wry sideways glances at everyday life. To be honest apart from one or two weak smiles the collection as a whole left me stony faced. Given his reputation this was a big disappointment.

[Ronnie Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

I hadn't read anything by Michael Frayn, although of course he is known for various other artistic activities. This book was hilarious in places, but also profoundly observant and usually interesting. The columns cover a long period of time, but very little was dated. It can really be regarded as something of a source book for British life over the second half of the twentieth century. There is a lot in it, though, and it took me a while to get through it.

[Fiona · Rating 3 out of 5]

A collection of Frayn's columns, mostly from the 1960s, with a few from the 1990s. It turned out that I'd read almost all of the 1960s columns before, from other, smaller collections, and that my memories of them are very clear, so there wasn't much feeling of rediscovery. The later pieces, which I hadn't read before, are relatively weak.

If this was my first encounter with these columns, I would probably give it five stars - his rear-view-mirror satire on birth control would earn it that, alone - but as a reprint, it made for a disappointing reading experience.