Michael Frayn

He taught us in the periods marked English on the timetable.

And he used to mark my essays, all 30 out of 30, and read them out to the class.

I was tremendously cheered by this, very encouraged.

So, of course, I worked very hard at pleasing him, writing the essays.

And one day, when I was about 15, I think, he read us Shelley's Ode to a Skylark.

And I, I think the whole class actually, were absolutely enraptured by it.

I've never heard anything so beautiful in my life.

It was just wonderful.

The world suddenly seemed a much wider, more amazing place than I'd realised.

And the friend I made at school, who was called Michael Lane, or if you're Michael Frame, Michael Lane, no one can tell us apart.

We were very close friends.

We discovered music and literature together.

Between us, we read enough poetry to fill the Oxford collection of English verse.

No.

No, they were terrible poems.

Well, it starts off with a very clear memory.

The two central characters, the little boys, are very much based on myself and my closest friend at the time.

And he was the leader in all our games.

And what I remember clearly is his saying at some point, out of the blue, my mother is a German spy.

And it was obviously the start of another game.