Headlong (Frayn novel)

For the 1980 novel by Emlyn Williams, see Headlong (Williams novel). For the 1999 novel by Simon Ings, see Headlong (Ings novel).

First edition (publ. Faber) featuring Bruegel's Landscape with the Fall of Icarus

Headlong is a novel by Michael Frayn, published in 1999. The plot centres on the discovery of a long-lost painting from Pieter Bruegel's series The Months. The story is essentially a farce, but contains a large amount of scholarship about the painter. Frayn distinguishes between the iconology and iconography of the paintings and suggests that rather than simply being a series of pastoral images they symbolise a Dutch populace undergoing great suffering as a result of Spanish rule.

The novel was shortlisted for the 1999 Booker Prize. An abridged version by Paul Kent and read by Martin Jarvis was first broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1999. A dramatized radio play directed by Clive Brill and produced by Ann Scott was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2013.[1]

  1. ^ Saturday Drama: Headlong, BBC.co.uk. Retrieved 14 April 2021.