SOURCE: Mitchison, Amanda. “Time Rewound.” New Statesman and Society 120, no. 4050 (13 September 1991): 39.

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.

Michael Frayn's latest novel [A Landing on the Sun] begins: “On the desk in front of me lie two human hands.” In the next paragraph, the reader discovers the hands belong to the narrator, and that the narrator wears “crisp white shirtsleeves”. Over the page we find the hands are also connected to a voice: “Because of course I have my voice in here with me, as well as my hands.” The voice, it transpires, belongs to a civil servant called “Jessel”, who is handling a file called “Summerchild”.

Summerchild, an impeccable civil servant, was found dead 15 years ago at the foot of the Admiralty building, presumably having fallen from...