Michael Frayn’s first, and now classic novel, was the winner of the Somerset Maugham Award in 1966.

Why not programme computers to take over the really dull jobs that human beings have to do? At the William Morris Institute of Automaton Research they are doing just that in order that mankind will be free to take care of the really stimulating and demanding tasks of living today – such as the impending visit of the Queen to open its new wing . . .