In the following essay, Blansfield discusses the themes of work and professional life in Frayn's plays, concluding that Frayn's interest in these themes is based on “a perception of its crucial role in middle class life.”

In the following essay, Moseley notes that Headlong, which was shortlisted for the 1999 Booker Prize, was his personal choice to win the award, asserting that Headlong is “a novel of lasting significance.”

In the following review, Filbin describes Headlong as witty, sardonic, engaging, and droll.

In the following review, Banville argues that A Landing on the Sun effectively displays Frayn's talents for comedy, but notes that the plot is overly contrived in some places.

In the following review, Worth asserts that Frayn proves himself a master of the stage farce with Noises Off.

In the following essay, Filbin discusses several recent novels—among them Now You Know—which he argues hold greater value and significance than other works of contemporary fiction.

In the following review, Wood discusses the theme of self-delusion in Headlong, commenting that the book has a fine beginning but loses its momentum when bogged down by the plodding details of the protagonist's research findings.

In the following review, Parrinder compares the central motifs in Now You Know to similar themes in Frayn's earlier novels and plays, praising Frayn as an inventive and innovative comic writer.

In the following review, Wall comments that A Landing on the Sun treats themes similar to those in The Trick of It, but less successfully, contending that the narrative voice of the former is dull and that the storyline tends to be diffuse.

In the following interview, Frayn discusses the writing of The Trick of It while reflecting on his literary career and writing process.

In the following review, Hensher provides an overview of Frayn's novels and plays, focusing on the theme of failure in interpersonal communication, with specific emphasis on the novel Headlong.

In the following essay, Hensher discusses what he perceives as the central theme throughout Frayn's columns, novels, and plays—a concern with the problematic relationships between people and language.

In the following review, Kamine praises Frayn's entertaining, witty, and dexterous prose in The Trick of It, stating that the central themes of the novel include the writing process and the ways in which the novelist transforms life into art.

In the following review, Wall praises Frayn's engaging, readable narrative voice in The Trick of It, describing the novel as “a fable of literature's ambivalent power.”

In the following review, Mackenzie asserts that although many of the characters in A Landing on the Sun are irritating stereotypes, Frayn skillfully blends the genres of philosophy and literature in the novel.

In the following review, Eder extols the strengths of A Landing on the Sun, calling the book a satirical examination of bureaucracies, academic institutions, and the differences between men and women.

In the following review, Winder offers a positive assessment of Celia's Secret, praising the book as “clever.”

In the following review, Lezard judges the stage version of Now You Know as a successful adaptation of the novel, commenting that the play “both raises and dodges issues of openness and secrecy in both private and public life.”

In the following review, Harper asserts that the strength of Headlong lies in its effective mixture of philosophy and farce.

In the following review, Thomas assesses the strengths of A Landing on the Sun, describing the novel as witty, touching, and intelligent.

In the following review, Jensen asserts that Frayn's treatment of the protagonist's relationship with his wife in Headlong is the book's main asset, but faults the novel for lacking substantial characters, memorable description, and for a disappointing and contrived plot.

In the following review, King comments that reading A Landing on the Sun is a pleasurable experience due to Frayn's successful combination of seriousness and humor.

In the following review, Dunford contends that Headlong demonstrates Frayn's abilities as an intelligent, funny, and clever writer.

In the following review, Brookner evaluates the strengths and weaknesses of Headlong.

In the following review, Reading offers a positive assessment of Now You Know, calling the novel witty and entertaining.

In the following review, King contends that Frayn makes convincing use of different narrative voices in Now You Know.

Michael Frayn has long been concerned with what one might portentously call the nature of reality and, until now at least, he's always stood squarely opposed to those who've attempted to fob off the rest of us with alluring substitutes. Hence his rather puritanical obsession with pop culture and the mass media, with ignorant pundits, facile critics and, of course, the eternal PROs and admen. The novels, especially The Tin Men, have pushed the attack rather further than the journalistic pieces....

In the following review, Dyson observes that many of the comic moments in Remember Me? are predictable but effective, further commenting that the film's resolution is unsatisfying and improbable.

In the following review, Gee asserts that Celia's Secret is a factual account of a hoax carried out between two friends.

In the following review, Raymond observes that Frayn is a clever and adroit writer but argues that Now You Know falls short in its construction, plot, and ethical values.

In the following review, Bien describes Headlong as “urbane and funny,” but comments that some readers may find the academic and research portions of the book to be tedious and uninteresting.

In the following review, Heller contends that The Trick of It is thoughtful and funny, observing that the novel explores the difficulties of writing fiction and the mysteries of the creative process.

In the following review, Mitchison lauds Frayn's accomplishment as a writer, judging A Landing on the Sun to be a skillful depiction of Britain's stodgy upper classes.

'And this is what the product is all about,' declares [John Garrard] at the end of Make and Break, swinging round the final section of his firm's wall system and revealing a corpse on the other side. Death stalks Frayn's characters as they play out their good commercial roles against a lurid trade-fair background, punctuated by the faint menace of exploding terrorist bombs 'out there' in the city of Frankfurt…. At the centre of the frenzy is the managing dire...

In the following review, Fearn praises Frayn's sense of humor in Celia's Secret, calling the work an “entertaining record of folly.”

In the following review, Duguid asserts that the strength of Here lies in the play's sense of dramatic immediacy.

In the following review, Natale describes Headlong as a successful novel that effectively blends farce and social comedy.

One's heart starts sinking from the first moment of Michael Frayn's play [The Sandboy] when Eleanor Bron drops an armload of cushions to stare at us aghast and go into her embarrassed hostess routine. It is one of those: the audience as uninvited guests. And not only that. We are also supposed to compose a huge television crew who have gate-crashed the house to film a day in the life of her celebrity husband. I can think of no playwright who has pulled off this particular trick which produces ...

There was every reason to look forward to Michael Frayn's first novel with the mouth already formed for laughter and wry smiles…. Mr. Frayn at his best is to my mind as penetrating as but perhaps gentler than Art Buchwald at revealing the sweet idiocies of our society. And in his first novel, The Tin Men …, Mr. Frayn has hit upon a marvelous, if obvious, idea for a witty and devastating fable. His setting is a new school for automation research, his characters humorless men who see no r...

Maybe it won't be without effect on the Cold War itself that the entertainment media men have gone over in a big way to spoofing it. Michael Frayn stands rather apart, because he doesn't invent absurdities so much as respond to real ambiguities in the situation. The Russian Interpreter is a spy story about cross-purposes on both sides. His earnest hero Proctor-Gould—an Englishman so convinced by himself he's worth setting beside Mr Powell's Widmerpool—is engaged in ...

It has become impossible in the last few years to watch television, read a periodical or book, listen to records, or attend a show without being subjected to the latest outpourings of wrath from the angry young wit of the moment. Name a taboo and he'll break it; think of any possible subject and he'll harpoon it with a few well-chosen barbs. Usually unrestricted by taste, learning, talent or sense, he is applauded by the yahoos he insults, most of whom bear the double burden of being not only ...

Michael Frayn's first novel, The Tin Men, is a fast, swooping performance by one of our very few serious satirists. In the past he has exposed so brilliantly some of the many vulgarities of modern life—the insidious message of the advertisement, the creepy crookedness of our P.R. workers, the stupidities conceived daily in our boardrooms—that he has become the only hatchet man of contemporary letters to combine a consistent attack with something that looks like a purpose. In The Tin Men...

It can't be easy to write even a weekly funny column. To be constructively funny—i.e., satirical—three times a week would seem an impossible task. Michael Frayn not only succeeded, he actually got better—a devoted follower could watch him exploring his way into a tricky form until he had the confidence to lash out with one of those superbly accurate pieces of social criticism for which one either loves or hates him. The Day of the Dog contains the best of these, and may come as a...

The pieces in On the Outskirts, like its predecessors [The Day of the Dog and The Book of Fub], have the remarkable virtue, shared with some books of poems, of gaining strength from contiguity. A common tone comes through, and, more importantly, that firm point of view which earlier students of Mr Frayn were quick to notice. You can have your laugh at Wittgenstein, 'informal' television discussions, letters to Radio Times, and at the abiding nonsense of public relations and advertising; but yo...

['Benefactors'] is a seriously amusing four-hander which takes Frayn away from the richer emotional resourcefulness of (in my opinion) his best play to date, 'Make and Break,' and into the patterning of couples more familiar in Ayckbournland. It is, for him, an excessively neat, neoclassical sort of piece which draws on only a fraction of his imaginative range, and in which the four characters … speak both to one another and to the audience. It is coloured throughout by th...

[Mr Frayn's play Make and Break] is wretchedly constructed; old-fashioned in its views of women; relies on a surprise ending which would have suited a comedy thriller, but which left the Haymarket audience tittering and giggling with embarrassment, not being able to believe that Mr Frayn took it seriously; depends for an interminable time at the beginning on scenic tricks and trucs with characters rushing in and out of opening and shutting doors without a trace of the expertise which sometimes makes ...

Michael Frayn has been compared to Evelyn Waugh. It is easy to see why…. [In The Russian Interpreter] Mr. Frayn succeeds in a tricky job of juggling deceivers deceived, spies spied upon.