Michael Frayn

Michael Frayn enjoys equally successful careers as dramatist, novelist and translator, having started out as an award-winning journalist. Best known as the author of the farce Noises Off (1982) and the dramas Copenhagen (1998) and Democracy (2003), his comic novels have also been critical and commercial successes making him one of a few British writers who have succeeded in both drama and prose fiction. His latest novel, Skios (2012), has been longlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2013. He talks to Gavin Esler about a writing career which began with his time as an award-winning journalist. Why does he want to make his readers laugh?