View source for William Golding

{{short description|British novelist, poet, and playwright (1911–1993)}}
{{Distinguish|William Goldman}}
{{Other people}}
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{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2024}}
{{Infobox writer <!-- for more information see [[:Template:Infobox writer/doc]] -->
| name             = William Golding
| honorific_prefix = Sir
| honorific_suffix = {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|CBE|FRSL}}
| image            = William Golding 1983.jpg
| caption          = Golding in 1983
| birth_name       = William Gerald Golding
| birth_date       = {{Birth date|1911|9|19|df=y}}
| birth_place      = [[Newquay]], [[Cornwall]], England
| death_date       = {{death date and age|1993|6|19|1911|9|19|df=y}}
| death_place      = [[Perranarworthal]], Cornwall, England
| resting_place    = Holy Trinity Church, [[Bowerchalke]], Wiltshire
| occupation       = {{hlist|Schoolteacher|novelist|playwright|poet}}
| period           = 
| genre            = {{hlist|Survivalist fiction|[[robinsonade]]|adventure|[[sea story]]|science fiction|essay|historical fiction|stageplay|poetry}}
| notableworks     = {{cslist|''[[Lord of the Flies]]''|''[[Rites of Passage (novel)|Rites of Passage]]''}}
| awards           = {{ubli|{{awd|[[Booker Prize]]|1980}}|{{awd|[[Nobel Prize in Literature]]|[[1983 Nobel Prize in Literature|1983]]}}|{{awd|[[Knight Bachelor]]|[[1988 Birthday Honours|1988]]}}}}
| signature        = William Golding signature.jpg
| education        = [[Oxford University]] ([[Bachelor of Arts|BA]])
}}

'''Sir William Gerald Golding''' {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|CBE|FRSL}} (19 September 1911 – 19 June 1993) was a British novelist, playwright, and poet. Best known for his [[debut novel]] ''[[Lord of the Flies]]'' (1954), Golding published another 12 volumes of fiction in his lifetime. In 1980, Golding was awarded the [[Booker Prize]] for ''[[Rites of Passage (novel)|Rites of Passage]]'', the first novel in what became his sea trilogy, ''[[To the Ends of the Earth]]''. He was awarded the [[1983 Nobel Prize in Literature]].

As a result of his contributions to literature, Golding was [[Knight Bachelor|knighted]] in 1988.<ref name="awards">[http://www.william-golding.co.uk/life/awards.aspx William Golding: Awards] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150916022710/http://www.william-golding.co.uk/life/awards.aspx |date=16 September 2015 }}. William Golding.co.uk. Retrieved 17 June 2012</ref><ref name="Lambert">{{cite news |author=Bruce Lambert |date=20 June 1993 |title=William Golding Is Dead at 81; The Author of 'Lord of the Flies' |url=https://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/bday/0919.html |access-date=6 September 2007 |work=The New York Times}}</ref> He was also a fellow of the [[Royal Society of Literature]].<ref name="awards" /> In 2008, ''[[The Times]]'' ranked Golding third on its list of "The 50 greatest [[British literature|British writers]] since 1945".<ref>[https://www.thetimes.com/culture/books/article/the-50-greatest-british-writers-since-1945-ws3g69xrf90 The 50 greatest British writers since 1945]. ''The Times'' (5 January 2008). Retrieved on 1 February 2010.</ref>

== Early life and education ==
[[File:William Golding's Plaque at Bishop Wordsworth's School.jpg|thumb|Plaque at [[Bishop Wordsworth's School]], [[Salisbury]].]]Son of Alec Golding, a science master at [[Marlborough Grammar School]] (1905 to retirement), and Mildred ({{Nee|Curnoe}})<ref>Raychel Haugrud Reiff, William Golding: Lord of the Flies, Marshall Cavendish, 2009</ref> William Golding was born at his maternal grandmother's house, 47 Mount Wise, [[Newquay]],<ref>Carey, Chap. 5 ('Childhood'), pg. 18.</ref> [[Cornwall]].<ref name=ODNB>Kevin McCarron, 'Golding, Sir William Gerald (1911–1993)', [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/52079 accessed 13 November 2007]</ref> The house was known as ''Karenza'', the [[Cornish language|Cornish]] word for love, and he spent many childhood holidays there.<ref>Carey, Chap 5 ('Childhood'), pg. 18.</ref> The Golding family lived at 29, The Green, [[Marlborough, Wiltshire]], Golding and his elder brother Joseph attending the school at which their father taught.<ref>Not to be confused with [[Marlborough College]], the nearby "public" boarding school.</ref> Golding's mother was a campaigner for female suffrage; she was [[Cornish people|Cornish]] and was considered by her son "a superstitious [[Celts|Celt]]", who used to tell him old Cornish ghost stories from her own childhood.<ref>Carey, Chap. 4 ('The House'), pg. 15.</ref>

In 1930, Golding went to [[Brasenose College, Oxford]], where he read [[natural sciences]] for two years before transferring to English for his final two years.<ref>Carey, pp. 41, 49</ref> His original [[Tutorial system|tutor]] was the chemist [[Thomas Taylor (chemist)|Thomas Taylor]].<ref>Carey, p. 15</ref> In a private journal and in a memoir for his wife, Golding admitted that, as a teenager during a vacation, he tried to rape a teenage girl with whom he had previously taken piano lessons, perceiving her to have "wanted heavy sex".<ref>{{Cite news|last=Wainwright|first=Martin|date=16 August 2009|title=Author William Golding tried to rape teenager, private papers show|language=en-GB|work=The Guardian|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/aug/16/william-golding-attempted-rape|access-date=20 December 2019|issn=0261-3077}}</ref>

Golding took his B.A. degree with second class honours in the summer of 1934, and later that year a book of his ''[[Poems (Golding collection)|Poems]]'' was published by [[Macmillan Publishers|Macmillan & Co]], with the help of his Oxford friend, the [[anthroposophy|anthroposophist]] Adam Bittleston.

In 1935, Golding took a job teaching English at [[Michael Hall School]], a [[Steiner-Waldorf]] school then in Streatham, South London, staying there for two years.<ref>
William Golding Limited 2002,  ''William Golding: a chronological account'' http://www.william-golding.co.uk/media/22919/p_biog.pdf archived as 
https://web.archive.org/web/20160325201600/http://www.william-golding.co.uk/media/22919/p_biog.pdf accessed 17 February 2022. Quoted in 
Katie Shambaugh, ''About the Author – Lord of the flies'' https://katielordoftheflies.weebly.com/about-the-author.html</ref> After a year in Oxford studying for a Diploma of Education, he became a schoolmaster teaching English and music at [[Maidstone Grammar School]] from 1938 to 1940, before moving to [[Bishop Wordsworth's School]], [[Salisbury]], in April 1940. There, Golding taught English, philosophy, Greek, and drama until joining the navy on 18 December 1940, reporting for duty at [[HMS Raleigh (shore establishment)|HMS Raleigh]]. He returned in 1945 and taught the same subjects until 1961.<ref>Carey, pp. 82, 111</ref>

Golding kept a personal journal for over 22 years<ref name="william-golding.co.uk">William Golding Website, https://william-golding.co.uk/timeline, Accessed 28 November 2020.</ref> from 1971 until the night before his death; it contained approximately 2.4 million words in total. The journal was initially used by Golding to record his dreams, but over time it began to function as a record of his life. The journals contained insights including retrospective thoughts about Golding's novels and memories from his past. At one point, Golding described setting his students up into two groups to fight each other – an experience he drew on when writing ''Lord of the Flies''.<ref>Carey, Chap 10 ('Teaching'), pgs. 125-6.</ref> [[John Carey (critic)|John Carey]], an emeritus professor of English literature at Oxford University, was eventually given 'unprecedented access to Golding's unpublished papers and journals by the Golding estate'.<ref name="william-golding.co.uk"/> Although Golding had not written the journals specifically so that a biography could be written about him, Carey published ''William Golding: The Man Who Wrote Lord of the Flies'' in 2009.<ref>Carey, John. ''The Man Who Wrote Lord of the Flies''. Faber, 2009.</ref>

===Military service===
During [[World War II]], Golding joined the [[Royal Navy]] in 1940.<ref>Raychel Haugrud Reiff, ''William Golding: Lord of the Flies'', page 58 (Marshall Cavendish, 2010). {{ISBN|978-0-7614-4276-9}}</ref> He served on a destroyer which was briefly involved in the pursuit and sinking of the German battleship [[German battleship Bismarck|''Bismarck'']]. Golding participated in the [[Normandy landings|invasion of Normandy on D-Day]], commanding a [[Landing Craft Tank (Rocket)|landing craft]] that fired salvoes of [[RP-3#tanks-encyclopedia|rockets]] onto the beaches. He was also [[Operation Infatuate|in action at Walcheren]] in October and November 1944, during which time 10 out of 27 assault craft that went into the attack were sunk.<ref>{{cite book| last=Mortimer| first=John| author-link=John Mortimer| title=Character Parts| location=London| publisher=Penguin| year=1986| isbn=978-0-14-008959-2| url-access=registration| url=https://archive.org/details/characterparts00mort}}</ref><ref>Carey, p. 94</ref> Golding rose to the rank of lieutenant.<ref>{{cite book | chapter-url=https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-1-349-08348-0_1#:~:text=In%201939%20he%20married%2C%20and,Salisbury%2C%20a%20boys%27%20school | doi=10.1007/978-1-349-08348-0_1 | chapter=William Golding: Life and Background | title=Lord of the Flies by William Golding | date=1986 | last1=Wilson | first1=Raymond | pages=1–2 | isbn=978-0-333-40409-6 }}</ref>

==="Crisis"===
Golding had a [[Alcohol abuse|troubled relationship with alcohol]]; Judy Carver notes that her father was "always very open, if rueful, about problems with drink".<ref name="Jordison 2013">{{cite web | last=Jordison | first=Sam | title=Live webchat with Judy Carver on The Spire by William Golding – post your questions here | website=The Guardian | date=24 April 2013 | url=http://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/apr/24/live-webchat-judy-carver | access-date=28 August 2021}}</ref> Golding suggested that his self-described "crisis", of which alcoholism played a major part, had plagued him his entire life.<ref name="Kendall466">Kendall p. 466</ref> John Carey mentions several instances of [[binge drinking]] in his biography, including Golding's experiences in 1963; whilst on holiday in [[Greece]] (when he was meant to have been finishing his novel ''[[The Spire]]''), after working on his writing in the morning, he would go to his preferred "[[Kafenio|Kapheneion]]" to drink at midday.<ref name ="Carey277">Carey p. 277</ref> By the evening he would move on to [[ouzo]] and [[brandy]]; he developed a reputation locally for "provoking explosions".<ref name="Carey277"/>

Unfortunately, the eventual publication of ''The Spire'' the following year did not help Golding's developing struggle with alcohol; it had precisely the opposite effect, with the novel's scathingly negative reviews in a BBC radio broadcast affecting him severely.<ref name="Carver McCrum">{{cite web | last=McCrum | first=Robert | title=William Golding's crisis | website=[[The Guardian]] | date=11 March 2012 | url=http://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/mar/11/william-golding-crisis | access-date=28 August 2021}}</ref> Following the publication of ''[[The Pyramid (Golding novel)|The Pyramid]]'' in 1967, Golding experienced a severe [[writer's block]]: the result of myriad crises (family anxieties, [[insomnia]], and a general sense of dejection).<ref name="Kendall466"/> Golding eventually became unable to deal with what he perceived to be the intense reality of his life without first drinking copious amounts of alcohol.<ref>Kendall p. 467</ref> [[Tim Kendall]] suggests that these experiences manifest in Golding's writing as the character Wilf in ''[[The Paper Men]]''; "an ageing novelist whose alcohol-sodden journeys across Europe are bankrolled by the continuing success of his first book".<ref>Kendall p. 479</ref>

By the late 1960s, Golding was relying on alcohol – which he referred to as "the old, old [[anodyne]]".<ref>Golding qtd in Kendall p. 467</ref> Golding's first steps towards recovery came from his study of [[Carl Jung]]'s writings, and in what he called "an admission of discipleship". Golding travelled to [[Switzerland]] in 1971 to see Jung's landscapes for himself.<ref name="Kendall Email">Kendall, Tim. ''Update.'' Email, ''University of Exeter'', 4 June 2021.</ref> That same year, Golding started keeping a journal in which he recorded and interpreted his dreams; the last entry is from the day before he died, in 1993, and the work came to be thousands of pages long by this time.<ref name="Carver McCrum"/>

The crisis did inevitably affect Golding's output, and his next novel, ''[[Darkness Visible (novel)|Darkness Visible]]'', would be published twelve years after ''The Pyramid''; a far cry from the prolific author who had produced six novels in thirteen years since the start of his career.<ref name="Kendall466"/> Despite this, the extent of Golding's recovery is evident from the fact that this was only the first of six further novels that Golding completed before his death.<ref name="Kendall Email"/>

==Career==
{{Moresources|section|date=January 2023}}
===Writing success===
[[File:Golding, Lundkvist och Sartre i Leningrad 1963.jpg|thumb|Golding, [[Artur Lundkvist]] and [[Jean-Paul Sartre]] at a writers' congress in [[Saint Petersburg|Leningrad]], [[USSR]], 1963.]]
In ''William Golding: A Critical Study'' (2008), George states that, “Golding experienced two things that he counts the greatest influences on his writing—first, the war and his service in the navy and second, his learning ancient Greek.”<ref>{{Cite book |last=Usha |first=George |title=William Golding: a critical study |publisher=Atlantic Publishers & Dist. |year=2008 |isbn=978-0571132591}}</ref> While still a teacher at [[Bishop Wordsworth's School]], in 1951 Golding began writing a manuscript of the novel initially titled ''Strangers from Within''.<ref name="Williams">{{cite web | title=New BBC programme sheds light on the story behind the publication of Lord of the Flies | website=Faber & Faber Blog | date=6 June 2019 | url=https://www.faber.co.uk/blog/new-bbc-programme-sheds-light-on-the-story-behind-the-publication-of-lord-of-the-flies/ | access-date=28 August 2021}}</ref> 

In September 1953, after rejections from seven other publishers, Golding sent a manuscript to [[Faber and Faber]] and was initially rejected by their reader, Jan Perkins, who labelled it as "Rubbish & dull. Pointless".<!--<ref name="Sunday Feature BBC R3">Sunday Feature, 18:45 2 June 2019, BBC Radio 3, 45 mins. https://learningonscreen.ac.uk/ondemand/index.php/prog/13750939?bcast=129246943 (Accessed 16 April 2020)</ref>--> However, Golding's book was championed by Charles Monteith, a new editor at the firm. Monteith asked for some changes to the text and the novel was published in September 1954 as ''[[Lord of the Flies]]''.

After moving in 1958 from [[Salisbury]] to nearby [[Bowerchalke]], Golding met his fellow villager and walking companion [[James Lovelock]]. The two discussed Lovelock's [[Gaia Hypothesis|hypothesis]], that the living matter of the planet Earth functions like a single organism, and Golding suggested naming this hypothesis after [[Gaia (mythology)|Gaia]], the personification of the Earth in Greek mythology, and mother of the Titans.<ref name="ecolo.org">James Lovelock, 'What is Gaia?', [http://www.ecolo.org/lovelock/what_is_Gaia.html accessed 16 May 2013]</ref> His publishing success made it possible for Golding to resign his teaching post at Bishop Wordsworth's School in 1961, and Golding spent that academic year in the United States as writer-in-residence at [[Hollins University|Hollins College]] (now Hollins University),<ref>{{Cite news |last=Knight |first=Nini |date=September 28, 1961 |title=Golding Glad To Be At Hollins |url=https://digitalcommons.hollins.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1764&context=newspapers |access-date=April 8, 2024 |work=Hollins Columns |page=1 |publication-place=Hollins College, Virginia |volume=XXXIV |issue=2}}</ref> near [[Roanoke, Virginia]].{{cn|date=January 2023}}

Golding won the [[James Tait Black Memorial Prize]] for ''[[Darkness Visible (Golding)|Darkness Visible]]'' in 1979, and the [[Booker Prize]] for ''[[Rites of Passage (novel)|Rites of Passage]]'' in 1980. Having been appointed [[Commander of the Order of the British Empire]] (CBE) in the [[1966 New Year Honours]],<ref>United Kingdom list: {{London Gazette |issue=43854 |date=31 December 1965 |pages=10   |supp=y}}</ref> Golding was appointed a [[Knight Bachelor]] in the [[1988 Birthday Honours]].<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=51558 |date=13 December 1988 |page=13986 }}</ref> In September 1993, only a few months after his unexpected death, the First International William Golding Conference was held in France.<ref>F. Regard (ed.), ''Fingering Netsukes: Selected Papers from the First International William Golding Conference'', Saint-Etienne, PUSE, 1995.</ref>

===Nobel Prize in Literature=== 
{{Main|1983 Nobel Prize in Literature}}

In 1983, Golding was awarded the [[Nobel Prize for Literature]] "for his novels which, with the perspicuity of realistic narrative art and the diversity and universality of myth, illuminate the human condition in the world of today".<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/1983/summary/ |title=The Nobel Prize in Literature 1983 |publisher=nobelprize.org }}</ref> It was, according to the ''[[Oxford Dictionary of National Biography]]'', "an unexpected and even contentious choice".<ref name="ODNB"/>

===Fiction===
Golding's first novel, ''[[Lord of the Flies]]'' (1954; film, 1963 and 1990; play, adapted by [[Nigel Williams (author)|Nigel Williams]], 1995), describes a group of boys stranded on a tropical island descending into a lawless and increasingly wild existence before being rescued.<ref>{{Cite news|date=16 September 2014|title=William Golding Flies classic holds true 60 years on|language=en-GB|work=BBC News|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-29205286|access-date=22 December 2020}}</ref> ''[[The Inheritors (William Golding)|The Inheritors]]'' (1955) depicts a tribe of gentle Neanderthals encountering modern humans, who by comparison are deceitful and violent. His 1956 novel ''[[Pincher Martin]]'' records the thoughts of a drowning sailor. ''[[Free Fall (Golding novel)|Free Fall]]'' (1959) explores the question of freedom of choice. The novel's narrator, a World War Two soldier in a German POW Camp, endures interrogation and solitary confinement. After these events and while recollecting the experiences, he looks back over the choices he has made, trying to trace precisely where he lost the freedom to make his own decisions. ''[[The Spire]]'' (1964) follows the construction (and near collapse) of an impossibly large spire on the top of a medieval cathedral (generally assumed to be [[Salisbury Cathedral]]).<ref name="MFS 1986 Harold H. Watts">{{cite journal | last=Watts | first=Harold H. | title=A View from the Spire: William Golding's Later Novels (review) | journal=MFS Modern Fiction Studies | volume=32 | issue=2 | date=1986 | issn=1080-658X | doi=10.1353/mfs.0.0492 | pages=321–322}}</ref>  

Golding's 1967 novel, ''[[The Pyramid (Golding)|The Pyramid]]'', consists of three linked stories with a shared setting in a small English town based partly on Marlborough where Golding grew up. ''[[The Scorpion God]]'' (1971) contains three novellas, the first set in an ancient Egyptian court ("The Scorpion God"); the second describing a prehistoric African hunter-gatherer group ("Clonk, Clonk"); and the third in the court of a Roman emperor ("Envoy Extraordinary"). The last of these, originally published in 1956, was reworked by Golding into a play, ''The Brass Butterfly'', in 1958. From 1971 to 1979, Golding published no novels. After this period he published ''[[Darkness Visible (Golding)|Darkness Visible]]'' (1979): a story involving terrorism, paedophilia, and a mysterious figure who survives a fire in [[the Blitz]] and appears to have supernatural powers. In 1980, Golding published ''[[To the Ends of the Earth#Rites of Passage|Rites of Passage]]'', the first of his novels about a voyage to Australia in the early nineteenth century. The novel won the [[Booker Prize]] in 1980 and Golding followed this success with ''[[To the Ends of the Earth#Close Quarters|Close Quarters]]'' (1987) and ''[[To the Ends of the Earth#Fire Down Below|Fire Down Below]]'' (1989) to complete his 'sea trilogy', later published as one volume entitled ''[[To the Ends of the Earth]]''. In 1984, he published ''[[The Paper Men]]'': an account of the struggles between a novelist and his would-be biographer.<ref name="Bufkin 1985 ">{{cite journal | last=Bufkin | first=E. C. | title=The Nobel Prize and the Paper Men: The Fixing of William Golding | journal=The Georgia Review | volume=39 | issue=1 | date=1985 | pages=55–65 }}</ref>

== Personal life ==
Golding was engaged to Molly Evans, a woman from Marlborough, who was well liked by both of his parents.<ref>Presley, Nicola. 'William Golding's Early Life.'William Golding Official Website, Published 19 September 2018, https://william-golding.co.uk/william-goldings-early-life. Accessed 29 November 2020.</ref> However, he broke off the engagement and married Ann Brookfield, an analytical chemist,<ref name="bloom">{{cite book |author=Harold Bloom |title=William Golding's Lord of the Flies; Bloom's modern critical interpretations |publisher=Infobase Publishing |year=2008 |isbn=978-0-7910-9826-4 |pages=161–165}}</ref> on 30 September 1939. They had two children: David (born September 1940) and Judith (born July 1945).<ref name="ODNB" /><ref>{{Cite web |last=Golding |first=Judy |date=16 September 2015 |title=The Inheritors: the intimate secrets in William Golding's Neanderthal tale |url=http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/sep/16/the-inheritors-william-golding-neanderthal-novel-60-years |access-date=18 March 2022 |website=The Guardian |language=en}}</ref>

== Death ==
In 1985, Golding and his wife moved to a house called [[Tullimaar House|Tullimaar]] in [[Perranarworthal]], near [[Truro]], Cornwall. He died of heart failure eight years later on 19 June 1993, at age 81. Golding's body was buried in the parish churchyard of [[Bowerchalke]] near his former home and the [[Wiltshire]] county border with [[Hampshire]] and [[Dorset]].

Golding left the draft of a novel, ''[[The Double Tongue]]'', set in [[Delphi|ancient Delphi]], which was published posthumously in 1995.<ref name="Lambert" /><ref>{{cite book |last=Golding |first=William |title=The Double Tongue |title-link=The Double Tongue |publisher=Faber |year=1996 |isbn=978-0-571-17803-2 |location=London}}</ref>

==List of works==

===Poetry===
*''[[Poems by William Golding ( poetry by Golding)|Poems]]'' (1934)

===Drama===
*''[[The Brass Butterfly]]'' (1958)

===Novels===
*''[[Lord of the Flies]]'' (1954) 
*''[[The Inheritors (William Golding)|The Inheritors]]'' (1955)
*''[[Pincher Martin]]'' (1956)
*''[[Free Fall (Golding)|Free Fall]]'' (1959)
*''[[The Spire]]'' (1964)
*''[[The Pyramid (Golding)|The Pyramid]]'' (1967)
*''[[Darkness Visible (Golding)|Darkness Visible]]'' (1979) ([[James Tait Black Memorial Prize]])
*''[[To the Ends of the Earth]]'' (trilogy)
**''[[Rites of Passage (novel)|Rites of Passage]]'' (1980) ([[Booker Prize]])
**''[[Close Quarters (Golding)|Close Quarters]]'' (1987)
**''[[Fire Down Below (novel)|Fire Down Below]]'' (1989)
*''[[The Paper Men]]'' (1984)
*''[[The Double Tongue]]'' (posthumous publication 1995)<ref>''The Double Tongue'' 1996 Faber reprint {{ISBN|978-0-571-17720-2}}</ref>

===Collections===
*''[[The Scorpion God]]'' (1971)
**"The Scorpion God"
**"Clonk Clonk"
**[[Envoy Extraordinary (novella)|"Envoy Extraordinary"]]

===Non-fiction===
*''[[The Hot Gates]]'' (1965)
*''[[A Moving Target]]'' (1982)
*''An Egyptian Journal'' (1985)

===Unpublished works===
*''Seahorse'' was written in 1948. It is a biographical account of sailing on the south coast of England in the summer of 1947 and contains a short passage about being in training for [[D-Day]].<ref>Carey, p. 130</ref>
*''Circle Under the Sea'' is an adventure novel about a writer who sails to discover archaeological treasures off the coast of the [[Scilly Isles]].<ref>Carey, p. 137</ref>
*''Short Measure'' is a novel set in a British school akin to [[Bishop Wordsworth's School|Bishop Wordsworth's]].<ref>Carey, p. 142</ref>

== Audiobooks ==
* 2005: ''Lord of the Flies'' (read by the author), Listening Library, {{ISBN|978-0-307-28170-8}}

== See also ==
*[[An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge]]
* [[H. Taprell Dorling]]

== Citations ==
{{reflist}}

== General and cited sources ==
* {{cite book |title=William Golding: The Man Who Wrote ''Lord of the Flies'' |last=Carey |first=Professor John |author-link=John Carey (critic) |year=2009 |publisher=Simon & Schuster |location=New York |isbn=978-1-4391-8732-6 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/williamgoldingma0000unse_j6u3 }}
* {{cite book |title=William Golding: The Man Who Wrote ''Lord of the Flies'' |last=Carey | first=Professor John |author-link=John Carey (critic) |year=2009 |publisher=Faber and Faber Limited |location=London |isbn=978-0-571-23163-8}}
*Kendall, Tim. "William Golding's Great Dream." Essays in Criticism, Vol. 68, Issue. 4, October 2018, pp.&nbsp;466–487. ''Oxford Academic'' (Website), https://academic.oup.com/eic/article-abstract/68/4/466/5126810?redirectedFrom=PDF. Accessed 3 June 2021.

==Further reading==
* Crompton, Donald. ''A View from the Spire: William Golding's Later Novels.'' Basil Blackwell Publisher Ltd, Oxford, 1985. https://archive.org/details/viewfromspirew00crom/page/n5/mode/2up. {{ISBN|978-0-631-14911-8}}.
* L. L. Dickson. ''The Modern Allegories of William Golding'' (University of South Florida Press, 1990). {{ISBN|978-0-8130-0971-1}}.
* R. A. Gekoski and P. A. Grogan, ''William Golding: A Bibliography'', London, André Deutsch, 1994. {{ISBN|978-0-233-98611-1}}.
* Golding, Judy. ''The Children of Lovers.'' Faber & Faber, 2012. {{ISBN|978-0-571-27342-3}}.
* Gregor, Ian and Kinkead-Weekes, Mark. ''William Golding: A critical Study''. 2nd Revised Edition, Faber & Faber, 1984. {{ISBN|978-0-571-13259-1}}
* McCarron, Kevin. (2007) 'From Psychology to Ontology: William Golding's Later Fiction.' In: MacKay M., Stonebridge L. (eds) British Fiction After Modernism. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230801394_15.
* McCarron, Kevin. ''William Golding (Writers and Their Work).'' 2nd Edition, Northcote House Publishers Ltd, 2006. {{ISBN|978-0-7463-1143-1}}.
* "Boys Armed with Sticks: William Golding's Lord of the Flies". Chapter in B. Schoene-Harwood. ''Writing Men''. Edinburgh University Press, 2000.
* Tiger, Virginia. ''William Golding: The Dark Fields of Discovery.'' Marion Boyars Publishers Ltd, 1974. {{ISBN|978-0-7145-1012-5}}.
* Tiger, Virginia. ''William Golding: The Unmoved Target.'' Marion Boyars Publishers Ltd, 2003. {{ISBN|978-0-7145-3082-6}}
* Ladenthin, Volker: Golding, Herr der Fliegen; Verne, 2 Jahre Ferien; Schlüter, Level 4 – Stadt der Kinder. In: engagement (1998) H. 4 S. 271–274.

==External links==
{{commonscat}}
{{Wikiquote}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20100819052632/http://www.bbc.co.uk/archive/writers/12203.shtml BBC television interview from 1959]
* {{Nobelprize}}
* [http://aurora.icaap.org/index.php/aurora/article/view/50/63 Interview] {{Webarchive|url=https://archive.today/20121221002234/http://aurora.icaap.org/index.php/aurora/article/view/50/63 |date=21 December 2012 }} by Mary Lynn Scott – Universal Pessimist, Cosmic Optimist
* [http://www.william-golding.co.uk/ William Golding Ltd] Official Website.
* [https://www.theguardian.com/books/2006/jun/10/fiction.williamgolding ''Last Words'' An account of Golding's last evening] by [[D. M. Thomas]] – Guardian – Saturday 10 June 2006 (''Review'' Section)
* [https://www.facebook.com/WilliamGoldingAuthor/ Official Facebook page]
* [http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1983/golding-lecture.html Nobel Prize Lecture]
* [https://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/mar/11/william-golding-crisis "William Golding's crisis"]
* {{IMDb name|0325717}}
* [http://lib-archives.ex.ac.uk/Record.aspx?src=CalmView.Catalog&id=EUL+MS+429 William Golding] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230405180940/http://lib-archives.ex.ac.uk/Record.aspx?src=CalmView.Catalog&id=EUL+MS+429 |date=5 April 2023 }} at University of Exeter Special Collections

{{William Golding}}
{{Booker Prize}}
{{Nobel Prize in Literature Laureates 1976-2000}}
{{1983 Nobel Prize winners}}
{{Culture of Cornwall}}
{{Lord of the Flies}}
{{Portal bar|Cornwall|Literature}}
{{Authority control}}

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