Frame, Ronald

(British, 1953– )

Frame was born in Glasgow, where he attended university before studying at Oxford. He became a full-time writer in 1981. Begin with the entertaining Sandmouth People (1987), which presents a day in the life of a genteel seaside town. Deft social comedy highlights behaviour ranging from the neurotic to the downright illegal beneath the rigid surfaces of 1950s respectability. A Woman of Judah (1987), which contains short stories in addition to the title novella, is an acute psychological study of a young lawyer's involvement with an unconventional couple and their haunting past. Each of the three novellas making up The Sun on the Wall (1994) hinges on disclosures that force radical reassessments of personal and familial identities. Bluette (1990) follows the extravagantly chequered career of its heroine from decadent youth in 1950s' England through to self-knowledge and fulfilment in contemporary America.

Paul Bailey, Allan Massie  DH