Max Frisch
Frisch's dramas up until the early 1960s are divided by the literary commentator into three groups: (1) the early wartime pieces, (2) the poetic plays such as "" ("Don Juan oder Die Liebe zur Geometrie") and (3) the dialectical pieces. It is above all with this third group, notably the parable "The Fire Raisers" (1953), identified by Frisch as a "lesson without teaching", and with "Andorra" (1961) that Frisch enjoyed the most success. Indeed, these two are among the most successful German language plays. The writer nevertheless remained dissatisfied because he believed they had been widely misunderstood. In an interview with Heinz Ludwig Arnold Frisch vigorously rejected their allegorical approach: "I have established only that when I apply the parable format, I am obliged to deliver a message that I actually do not have". After the 1960s Frisch moved away from the theatre. His late biographical plays "" ("Biografie: Ein Spiel") and "" were apolitical but they failed to match the public success of his earlier dramas. It was only shortly before his death that Frisch returned to the stage with a more political message, with "Jonas and his Veteran", a stage version of his arresting dialogue "Switzerland without an army? A Palaver".
Malcolm Afford
Max Afford wrote three novels while in his twenties, which were later published in England and America. He worked as a reporter at the "News and Mail" from 1926 to 1931. His first story was published in "Smith's Weekly" in 1928. In 1936 he won the "Advertiser"'s centenary play competition with "William Light The Founder" (later titled "Awake My Love"). His 'Jeffrey Blackburn' novels included "Blood on His Hands!" (London, 1936) and "Death's Mannikins" (London, 1937). Many were dramatised for radio, starring Peter Finch and Neva Carr Glyn as the husband-and-wife detective team. Afford wrote eight crime novels, usually employing English settings, and more than sixty radio and stage plays, usually stories of crime involving the sifting of situations that ultimately uncover the perpetrators. He was considered somewhat of a pioneer of the "whodunit" in radio broadcasting.
A science fiction story, "The Gland Men of the Island", appeared in "Wonder Stories" in January 1931.
Afford was one of the first contract writers to be engaged by the ABC. In 1936, he won three playwriting awards, and was appointed Staff Dramatist by the ABC, with whom he was contracted for six years. During this time he wrote 30 one-and-a-half-hour plays, 15 serials, more than 100 play adaptations, and produced a number of his own plays. From 1941 he wrote children's and adult radio serials including "Hagen's Circus" (800 episodes) for radio 2GB and 2UE.