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Michael Frayn
Michael Frayn, FRSL (; born 8 September 1933) is an English playwright and novelist. He is best known as the author of the farce ''Noises Off'' and the dramas ''Copenhagen (play), Copenhagen'' and ''Democracy (play), Democracy''. Frayn's novels, such as ''Towards the End of the Morning'', ''Headlong (Frayn novel), Headlong'' and ''Spies (novel), 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. He has also written philosophical works, such as ''The Human Touch: Our Part in the Creation of the Universe'' (2006). Early life Frayn was born at Mill Hill, north London (then in Middlesex), to Thomas Allen Frayn, an asbestos salesman from a working-class family of blacksmiths, locksmiths and servants and his wife Violet Alice (née Lawson). Violet was the daughter of a failed palliasse merchant; having studied as a violinist at the Royal Academy of Music, she worked as ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
:Template:Infobox Writer/doc
Infobox writer may be used to summarize information about a person who is a writer/author (includes screenwriters). If the writer-specific fields here are not needed, consider using the more general ; other infoboxes there can be found in :People and person infobox templates. This template may also be used as a module (or sub-template) of ; see WikiProject Infoboxes/embed for guidance on such usage. Syntax The infobox may be added by pasting the template as shown below into an article. All fields are optional. Any unused parameter names can be left blank or omitted. Parameters Please remove any parameters from an article's infobox that are unlikely to be used. All parameters are optional. Unless otherwise specified, if a parameter has multiple values, they should be comma-separated using the template: : which produces: : , language= If any of the individual values contain commas already, add to use semi-colons as separators: : which produces: : , pseu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Commonwealth Writers' Prize
Commonwealth Foundation has presented a number of prizes since 1987. The main award was called the Commonwealth Writers' Prize and was composed of two prizes: the Best Book Prize (overall and regional) was awarded from 1987 to 2011; the Best First Book prize was awarded from 1989 to 2011. In addition the Commonwealth Short Story Competition was awarded from 1996 to 2011. Beginning in 2012, Commonwealth Foundation discontinued its previous awards and created a new cultural initiative called Commonwealth Writers, which offered two new awards: the Commonwealth Book Prize for the best first book, in which regional winners received £2,500 and the overall winner received £10,000; and the Commonwealth Short Story Prize for the best short stories, in which regional winners received £1,000 and the overall winner received £5,000. After two years, the Book Prize was discontinued. The Short Story Prize remains the sole award from Commonwealth Writers. Commonwealth Short Story Prize The ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Spies (novel)
''Spies'' (2002) is a psychological novel by English author and dramatist Michael Frayn. It is currently studied by A-Level, and some GCSE, literature students in various schools. It is also studied by some Year 12 Victorian Certificate of Education, VCE English students in Australia. Synopsis Narrating in the form of a bildungsroman, an elderly man, Stefan Weitzler, reminisces about his life during the Second World War as he wanders down the now modernised London Dead end (street), cul-de-sac that he once called home. Now a young boy, Stephen, regularly bullied at school and bored with his home life, is informed by his best friend Keith Hayward, a snobbish and domineering neighbour, that Keith's mother is an Secret agent, undercover operative working for the Germans. As the two boys spy on Mrs. Hayward from a hiding place in the hedges, they notice her unusual daily routine: leaving Keith's house with a picnic basket full of food, tapping on the window of Auntie Dee (Mrs. Hay ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Headlong (Frayn Novel)
''Headlong'' is a novel by Michael Frayn, published in 1999. The plot centres on the discovery of a long-lost painting from Pieter Bruegel's series ''The Months''. The story is essentially a farce, but contains a large amount of scholarship about the painter. Frayn distinguishes between the iconology and iconography of the paintings and suggests that rather than simply being a series of pastoral images they symbolise a Dutch populace undergoing great suffering as a result of Spanish rule. The novel was shortlisted for the 1999 Booker Prize. An abridged version by Paul Kent and read by Martin Jarvis was first broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1999. A dramatized radio play directed by Clive Brill and produced by Ann Scott was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2013. Plot Martin, the main character, is supposed to be writing a book. He finds himself invited to dinner at the house of a repellent and warring couple, on whom the land and property they own seems entirely wasted. Martin happens ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Towards The End Of The Morning
''Towards The End Of The Morning'' is a 1967 satirical novel by Michael Frayn about journalists working on a British newspaper during the heyday of Fleet Street. Its protagonists work to compile the miscellaneous, unimportant parts of the newspaper – the "nature notes" column, the religious "thought for the day", the crossword and so on. The paper seems sunk in a state of torpor, and the journalists' work is extremely dull. Feeling their lives and careers are stalled, they spend most of their day complaining about work and dreaming of better things. John Dyson, the lead protagonist, longs to work in television, and is at last given his chance towards the end of the book. However, fate seems determined to thwart him. ''Towards'' was Frayn's third book after '' The Tin Men'' and '' The Russian Interpreter'', and is based on his experiences at ''The Observer'', where he worked from 1962 to 1968. A central theme of the book is Dyson's struggle against what he sees as encroachin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Democracy (play)
''Democracy'' is a play by Michael Frayn which premiered in London at the Royal National Theatre on September 9, 2003. Directed by Michael Blakemore, and starring Roger Allam as Willy Brandt and Conleth Hill as Günter Guillaume, it won the ''Evening Standard'' and Critics' Circle awards for Best Play. ''Democracy'' premiered on Broadway at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre on November 18, 2004, and ran for 173 performances. It was nominated for the Tony Award and Drama Desk Award as Best Play. It has also been staged in Copenhagen, Oslo, Stockholm, Helsinki (2005), Wellington, Vancouver, Toronto and Moscow (2016). A revival of the play, directed by Paul Miller at Sheffield's Crucible Theatre, transferred to London's Old Vic Theatre in 2012. The play, based on actual events, deals with the decision West German chancellor Willy Brandt had to make about exposing the Communist spy Günter Guillaume who worked as his secretary and had heard some of the state's most important secre ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Copenhagen (play)
''Copenhagen'' is a Play (theatre), play by Michael Frayn, based on an event that occurred in Copenhagen in 1941, a meeting between the physicists Niels Bohr and Werner Heisenberg, who had been Bohr's student. It premiered in London in 1998, at the National Theatre, running for more than 300 performances, starring David Burke (British actor), David Burke (Niels Bohr), Sara Kestelman (Margrethe Bohr), and Matthew Marsh (actor), Matthew Marsh (Werner Heisenberg). It opened on Broadway at the Royale Theatre on 11 April 2000 and ran for 326 performances. Directed by Michael Blakemore, it starred Philip Bosco (Niels Bohr), Michael Cumpsty (Werner Heisenberg), and Blair Brown (Margrethe Bohr). It won the Tony Award for Best Play, Best Featured Actress in a Play, Blair Brown, and Best Direction of a Play (Michael Blakemore). In 2002, the play was Copenhagen (TV film), adapted as a film by Howard Davies (director), Howard Davies, produced by the BBC and presented on the Public Broadcas ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Noises Off
''Noises Off'' is a 1982 farce by the English playwright Michael Frayn. Frayn conceived the idea in 1970 while watching from the wings a performance of '' The Two of Us'', a farce that he had written for Lynn Redgrave. He said, "It was funnier from behind than in front, and I thought that one day I must write a farce from behind." The prototype, a short-lived one-act play called ''Exits'', was written and performed in 1977. At the request of his associate, Michael Codron, Frayn expanded this into what would become ''Noises Off''. It takes its title from the theatrical stage direction indicating sounds coming from offstage. Characters of ''Noises Off'' *Lloyd Dallas: The director of a play-within-the-play, ''Nothing On''. Temperamental, exacting and sarcastic. Involved with both Brooke and Poppy. *Dotty Otley: A middle-aged television star who is not only the top-billed star but also one of the play's principal investors. Dating the much younger Garry. *Garry Lejeune: The ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Novelist
A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living wage, living writing novels and other fiction, while others aspire to support themselves in this way or write as an avocation. Most novelists struggle to have their debut novel published, but once published they often continue to be published, although very few become literary celebrities, thus gaining prestige or a considerable income from their work. Description Novelists come from a variety of backgrounds and social classes, and frequently this shapes the content of their works. Audience reception, Public reception of a novelist's work, the literary criticism commenting on it, and the novelists' incorporation of their own experiences into works and characters can lead to the author's personal life and identity being associated with a novel's fictional content. For this reason, the environment ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Playwright
A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes play (theatre), plays, which are a form of drama that primarily consists of dialogue between Character (arts), characters and is intended for Theatre, theatrical performance rather than just Reading (process), reading. Ben Jonson coined the term "playwright" and is the first person in English literature to refer to playwrights as separate from Poet, poets. The earliest playwrights in Western literature with surviving works are the Ancient Greeks. William Shakespeare is amongst the most famous playwrights in literature, both in England and across the world. Etymology The word "play" is from Middle English , from Old English ("play, exercise; sport, game; drama, applause"). The word ''wikt:wwright'' is an archaic English term for a Artisan, craftsperson or builder (as in a wheelwright or Wagon, cartwright). The words combine to indicate a person who has "wrought" words, themes, and other elements into a dramatic form — a play. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Joint Services School For Linguists
The Joint Services School for Linguists (JSSL) was founded in 1951 by the British armed services to provide language training, principally in Russian, and largely to selected conscripts undergoing National Service. The school closed with the ending of conscription in 1960, after which the services made their own provisions as they had prior to the opening of the school (and, to some extent, even during its operation). The founding of the school was prompted by the need to provide greater numbers of interpreters, intelligence and signals intelligence officers due to the Cold War, and the Korean War which had started the previous year. Training and accommodation locations Two of the school's sites — at Walker Lines, Bodmin, Cornwall, and Coulsdon, near Croydon - opened in September 1951. The Coulsdon site closed in 1954, and Bodmin in 1956. For a time in the early 1960s the school (renamed the Joint Services School for Linguists) was based at RAF Tangmere near Chichester ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kingston Grammar School
Kingston Grammar School is a private co-educational day school in Kingston upon Thames, England. The school was founded by royal charter in 1561 but can trace its roots back to at least the 13th century.History It is a under English law. It was a boys' school from its foundation until 1978, when the first girls were admitted. In 2018, the results recorded 85% of grades were A*/A or 9–7, and at A-level 62.7% of all grades were A or A*. In 2008, the '' |
