Is Michael Frayn a closet Pavonian?

In an excellent introduction to her *Peacock Displayed: A Satirist
in his Context* Marilyn Butler has this to say:

"He [Thomas Love Peacock] is attractive for many of the same reasons
as Jane Austen. His oeuvre is similar in extent, and hence knowable:
for her six books, he offers seven, and on the whole they are shorter.
He has a similar wit and precision of phrase. Even more than hers his
humour breathes high spirits and the urbanity that comes from carefully
weighting a subject."

Butler mentions the use that John Fowles makes use of Peacock in his,
Fowles's, novella *The Ebony Tower*, but am I the first to suggest
a connection between Peacock and Frayn? Peacock's first novel is
*Headlong Hall* and Frayn's is *Headlong*. Then, looking at Peacock's
later novels I note that they are described on the title page as:
"By the Author of Headlong Hall". Similarly Frayn on the cover of
*Spies" has: "By the Author of Headlong". It is also a Janeite trick
of course.

Frayn is a stylish writer and I would like to explore his Headlong for
Pavonian context and matbe I shall read *Spies*, now on my bedside
table, with TLP in mind.

Frayn wrote other novels before "Headlong," e.g. "Towards the End of
the Morning," a 1960s comic novel of Fleet Street.

francis muir <francis RemoveThis @stanford.edu> wrote in message news:<BCEBA3D6.1C9BD%francis@stanford.edu>...

 > a connection between Peacock and Frayn? Peacock's first novel is
 > *Headlong Hall* and Frayn's is *Headlong*.<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->