Skios
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Book Review
Frayn adapts his skill with stage farce to a hilarious novel about a mix-up between a scientist and a socialite on a Greek island
There's something strikingly old-fashioned about this breathless, elegant farce about intellectual life. I was reminded of the recent revival of Pinero's The Magistrate and the enormously successful One Man, Two Guvnors; the action in Skios is as ... more.
Description
On the sunlit Greek island of Skios, the Fred Toppler Foundation's annual lecture is to be given by Dr Norman Wilfred, the world-famous authority on the scientific organisation of science. He turns out to be surprisingly young and charming - not at all the intimidating figure they had been expecting. The Foundation's guests are soon eating out of his hand. So, even sooner, is Nikki, the attractive and efficient organiser. Meanwhile, in a remote villa at the other end of the island, Nikki's old school-friend Georgie waits for the notorious chancer she has rashly agreed to go on holiday with, and who has only too characteristically failed to turn up. Trapped in the villa with her, by an unfortunate chain of misadventure, is a balding old gent called Dr Norman Wilfred, who has lost his whereabouts, his luggage, his temper and increasingly all normal sense of reality - everything he possesses apart from the flyblown text of a well-travelled lecture on the scientific organisation of science...
Michael Frayn on how he wrote Skios
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