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Copenhagen |
Why did German physicist Werner Heisenberg travel to occupied Denmark and the Copenhagen home of his former colleague Niels Bohr? Whether or not you have seen the play, the script and postscript notes make fascinating reading, and put forward a number of conflicting possibilities. The riddle remains, and will continue to occupy your thoughts long after you put the book down.
(Serena Fenwick - bwl 5 October 2000) |
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Headlong |
Martin, art-historian - good at iconology, less good at life - bungles his way through this funny, satirical novel. Tony, the muddy local landowner; Laura, his luscious wife and a pack of slobbering dogs, whose smell lifts off the pages, hinder hilariously. Has Martin discovered an unknown Bruegel? Can he get hold of it? The romp alternates with well researched history of Bruegel and C European art. Farce with a serious centre and immensely readable.
(Jenny Freeman - bwl 9 June 2001) |
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My Fathers Fortune: A Life |
In this moving and painfully honest memoir, Michael Frayn traces in detail his family background and gives a starring role to his Father who worked all his life as a salesman and sacrificed much to support his family. He didn't leave much material wealth but produced one of our finest writers and dramatists. Through this book we remember him fondly. He did his best.
(David Graham - bwl 58 Autumn 2010) |
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Skios |
I am not a great fan of farce but Frayn is a master of the genre. Once you accept the initial preposterous mistaken identity - in these days of Google more than unlikely - there is a delightful dig at the lecture circuit that academics (and others) so love. The gullibility of the audience as they listen to nonsense is amusing and the book is full of twists and turns. Ideal light-hearted holiday reading perhaps but I'm still not a total convert.
(Christine Miller - bwl 65 Summer 2012) |
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Spies |
'Spies' is the retrospective view of a Second World War childhood. Whilst creating a very real atmosphere of the 1940s it explores many apparently unsolvable dilemmas of the young in the same way as L.P. Hartley does in 'The Go-Between'. We begin to see through some of the mysteries early in the book but Frayn's novel is compulsive reading and it is not until the end that our suspicions are finally confirmed.
(Judith Peppitt - bwl 13 April 2002) |
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Spies |
The story of two young boys who decide that the mother of one of them is a German spy, and spend every minute of their spare time following her to catch her out. The truth comes out slowly, and what seems at the outset to be a silly, childish game turns darker and more disturbing, and eventually ruins friendships and lives. A very funny book which becomes frightening and finally very moving. Wonderful!
(Julie Higgins - bwl 33 February 2006) |
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