Michael Frayn was born in 1933 in the suburbs of London and began his career as a journalist with first The Guardian and then The Observer.

He has published nine novels – The Tin Men, The Russian Interpreter, Towards The End Of The Morning, A Very Private Life, Sweet Dreams, The Trick Of It, A Landing On The Sun, Now You Know and Headlong, which was nominated for the 1999 Booker Prize. He has also written a volume of philosophy, Constructions.

As a playwright his plays include The Two Of Us, Alphabetical Order, Donkey’s Years, Clouds, Balmoral (Liberty Hall), Make And Break, Noises Off, Benefactors, Look Here And There. Alphabetical Order, Make And Break and Noises Off all received Best Comedy of the Year Awards whilst Benefactors was named Best Play of the Year.

Most recently, Michael Frayn wrote Alarms And Excursions (UK tour and West End) and Copenhagen, which opened at the Royal National Theatre and transferred to the Duchess Theatre for two years. Copenhagen was also performed on Broadway and the Theatre Montparnasse, Paris. The play won the Evening Standard and Critics’ Circle Best Play Awards, two Moliere Awards for the French production and was nominated for an Olivier Award for Best Play. The Broadway production won the Outer Critics’ Circle Award for Outstanding Broadway Play, a Tony Award for Best Play and another Tony for Best Direction of a Play for Michael Blakemore.

A new production of Noises Off opened to rave reviews at the Royal National Theatre in October 2000 and transferred to the Piccadilly Theatre in May of this year. It opens on Broadway in November.

Michael Frayn has translated four of Chekhov’s full-length plays – The Cherry Orchard, Three Sisters, The Seagull and Uncle Vanya and adapted Chekhov’s first untitled play as Wild Honey. He has also translated four of Chekhov’s one-act plays under the collective title The Sneeze as well as Tolstoy’s Fruits Of Enlightenment, Yuri Trifonov’s Exchange and Anouilh’s Number One.

Films include: Clockwise (starring John Cleese), First And Last (winner of an International Emmy Award 1990), Noises Off and Remember Me? (1997 – starring Robert Lindsay, Rik Mayall and Imelda Staunton). Alphabetical Order, Donkey’s Years, Make And Break, Benefactors and A Landing On The Sun have all been filmed for television.