Skios

<b>Longlisted for the Man Booker Prize</b><br><br> <i>'Good God thought Oliver as he saw the smile. She thinks I'm him! And all at once he knew it was so. He </i>was <i>Dr Norman Wilfred.'</i><br><br> 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.<br><br>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... <br><br> And as the time draws ever nearer for one or other Dr Wilfred - or possibly both - to give the eagerly awaited lecture so Skios - Greece - Europe - career off their appointed track. <br><br> Longlisted for the Man Booker Prize <i>Skios </i>is a story of mislaid identity misdirected passion and miscalculated consequences. Michael Frayn is also the celebrated author of fifteen plays including <i>Noises Off</i> <i>Copenhagen</i> and <i>Afterlife. </i>His other bestselling novels include <i>Headlong</i> which was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and <i>Spies</i> which won the Whitbread Best Novel Award.