A Landing on the Sun - Michael Frayn

“In front of me lay two human hands” They say the first line of a book should be a cracker to get you hooked. Using this theory Landing on the Sun by Michael Frayn certainly had the potential to be an interesting read. However I was not sure at first whether I would enjoy it or not. Brian Jessel is a civil servant working in Whitehall. His main task throughout the book is to investigate the mysterious death of another civil servant Stephen Summerchild that happened in 1974. Summerchild was working on a top secret mission alongside the shadowy figure of Professor Serrafin. Jessel’s life intertwines with Summerchild’s as Jessel played in an orchestra ...

Have you ever read a book you love but been clueless about the origins of its title? “A Landing on the Sun” is one of those books for me. (The title has probably got some allegorical significance that I’m completely ignorant about. If you know, please let me in on it. The only explanation I can find for the title of this novel is its interest in the shiny roofs of government buildings where the tiles aren’t the only things to get hot.) “A Landing on the Sun” is the story of Jessel, a civil servant who seems quite satisfied with his job, which as the novel begins, is to report on the Annual Assessment of Departmental ...