Ronald Frame is a Scottish novelist, short story writer, and dramatist. He was educated in Glasgow, and at Oxford University.

His first TV film Paris won the Samuel Beckett Award and PYE’s ‘Most Promising Writer New to Television’ Award.

He has written many original plays and adaptations for BBC Radio. Collected here are five original Frame dramas, two adaptations as well as readings of three of Frame’s short stories.

Blue Wonder – Throughout the period of the Cold War in the late 1960s and early 1970s, ‘romeo spies’ were operating, targeting bright and susceptible young women. Alice Reeves, a young secretary from London, unwittingly becomes romantically involved with Otto Hanhart – an East German spy. The encounter leads to unexpected consequences for all parties, changing their lives forever.

Don’t Look Now – John and Laura Bennett are on holiday in Venice, trying to get over the tragic death of their daughter. They seem to be succeeding, until a blind psychic starts relaying messages from beyond the grave….

Greyfriars – With petty thieves at work in the high street and a gang of ruthless house breakers at work in both the Old and New Town area of Edinburgh, new police recruits John Gray and his faithful dog have their work cut out. John Gray served as an Edinburgh policeman for several years in the 1850s. Like other officers on the beat back then, he had to provide his own police dog – the faithful Skye terrier that came to be known as Greyfriars Bobby.

Pinkerton – In the new immigrant community of 1840s America, Scotsman Allan Pinkerton turns detective when an influx of counterfeit dollars threatens the local economy.

The Shell House – In 1972, a spinster scientist with private means meets an exiled Czech architect whose career has stalled. She offers him a commission to design a weekend house on some land she owns on the Suffolk coast. The strange, daring and beautiful building that results will haunt both their lives.

Before the Fact – In the early 1930s, Lina, a girl in her late twenties from a wealthy family is in danger of becoming a spinster. But life then changes for the better when she meets Johnnie Aysgarth, a charming stranger who proposes marriage. Johnnie saves Lina from a boring life with her parents and whisks her off on an extravagant honeymoon. But on their return Lina begins to discover that Johnnie is not all he seems. His gambling threatens to ruin them, but is her growing suspicion that he is also a murderer founded on reality or her imagination?

The Razor’s Edge – Traumatised young veteran Larry Darrell returns to Chicago after the First World War, but finds it difficult to fit back into society. To the dismay of his fiancée, Isabel, he heads for Paris, where he embarks on a spiritual quest to find the answers to his many questions.

The End of the Season – Rhona has run away from her relationship problems. At her hotel, after much people watching, she comes to an understanding.

The Trinket Box – To her observers, Mrs Bradley always seemed that bit too glamorous for a small gift shop owner…

The Waitress at the Glockenspiel – “For two years, ever since she set out West, she has planned what to do…” A waitress in Berlin serves coffee to her bitterest enemy and imagines how she will get her revenge.