William Golding - author of Lord of the Flies

Sir William Golding is one of the best known British authors of the 20th century. Famed for his first novel, “Lord of the Flies", he went from an unknown school teacher to Nobel and Booker prize winner.

Golding was born William Gerald Golding on the Sept. 19, 1911, in the Cornish village of St. Columb Minor. Though he would spend many summer holidays in the village of his maternal grandmother, he grew up in Marlborough in Wiltshire. Golding’s father, Alec, was a science schoolmaster at Marlborough Grammar School. His mother, Mildred Cumroe, was a housewife with strong suffragette views.

William Golding - Dutch National Archives - CC-BY-SA-3.0-NL

Golding attended Marlborough Grammar School, with his elder brother Joseph. Both were strongly influenced by their father’s scientific rationalism and socialist views. This influence meant that when Golding went to Oxford University in 1930 it was to study natural sciences rather than the literature he loved. Two years into his studying at Brasenose College, Oxford, Golding reacted against his father changing his degree subject to English literature and philosophy.

Golding graduated in 1934 with a BA (Hons.). On leaving university, Golding tried his hand at writing, and even had a collection of his poems, simply called “Poems” published in 1934. He found that he could not make a living from writing though, and after unsuccessful stints as a theater producer and actor, he turned to the teaching profession.

Moving back to Wiltshire, Golding found a job teaching at Bishop Wordsworth School in Salisbury. He also found himself a wife, marrying Ann Brookfield in 1939. Golding went on to have two children with his wife, David, born in 1940, and Judith Diana, born in 1945.

The second World War had a profound impact on Golding. Joining the Royal Navy in 1940, he found himself unprepared for the harshness of war. In all Golding was to spend six years at sea, chasing the Bismarck in 1940, and supporting the invasion of Normandy in 1944. In the later years of the war Golding commanded at a landing ship, firing rockets at enemy targets on beaches. One of these attacks was at Walcheren, where 23 out of 24 landing crafts were sunk.

Golding was demobilized from the Navy, as a lieutenant, in 1946, and returned back to his teaching post in Salisbury. On his return though he found he had a new desire to write, his experiences from the war giving him much writing material.

His first novel was “Lord of the Flies,” his best known work. Originally written as a story for his young children, Golding sent it off to numerous publishers seeking to get the book in print. Following a number of rejections Faber & Faber of London eventually agreed to its publication in 1954. Championed by E.M. Forster, it soon became a bestseller, its popularity even extending to the United States.

Set on a deserted island, the tale of a community of British boys evacuated because of nuclear war. The story tells of the disintegration of society from order into cruelty and death. Translated into numerous languages, and filmed twice, the novel shows Golding’s inherent beliefs that human nature is corrupt and evil.

Similar themes of violence and the wickedness of human nature became common in his follow up works. Golding received a reputation for exposing the darkness of the soul of all humans. His stories would also end up bringing in elements of mythology and Christian symbolism in relation to modern society.

Golding quickly followed up the success of “Lord of the Flies” with his 1955 work “The Inheritors.” Golding related the story of Neanderthal man competing with Homo sapiens for survival. The following year “Pincher Martin” appeared in bookstores, and returned to Golding’s naval career, telling the tale of a sailor trying to survive in the Atlantic Ocean. In 1959 Golding completed “Free Fall” and returned to his theme of the depravity of human nature when an artist looks back at his life.
It wasn’t just novels that Golding was writing. A short story “Envoy Extraordinary” was turned by the author into the 1958 play “The Brass Butterfly.” Both told the same tale of a Greek inventor trying to be accepted at a Roman court.

Publishing success allowed Golding to finally make a career out of his writing. In 1961 Golding resigned from his teaching post at Bishop Wordsworth School, although he did undertake a further academic year at Hollins College in Roanoke, Virginia. The year in Virginia was spent as a writer-in-residence.

Golding continued to write, producing collections of essays, “The Hot Gates”(1965), “A Moving Target” (1982) and “An Egyptian Journal” (1985). Golding produced a further eight pieces of work between 1964 and 1989.

In 1964 Golding had “The Spire” published. The tale of the construction of a cathedral spire, it soon reverts to the common theme of murder and treachery in society. Three years later “The Pyramid,” comprised of three stories, brought together the common location of a 1920s English town. The 1971 novel “The Scorpion God” is a collection of three short stories from prehistoric Africa, ancient Egypt and ancient Rome.

“Rites of Passage” from 1980 was probably the second most known novel from Golding. The tale of life aboard a Napoleonic era warship spawned two sequels “Close Quarters” (1987) and “Fire Down Below” (1989).

In 1979 Golding was awarded his first literary prize, the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, for “Darkness Visible” in which he told the tale of the London blitz and the injury of one young boy.
The following year he received a Booker Prize for “Rites of Passage.” His final award was the biggest with the award of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1983. For an author who was not the most prolific he did receive his fair share of awards.

Away from literature Golding received a CBE (Commander of the British Empire) in 1965; he was elevated to a knighthood in 1988 by Queen Elizabeth II. He did miss out though on the Chancellorship of the University of Kent in 1970.

His spare time was taken up with music and sailing. He was also a keen archaeologist, with a strong interest in ancient Greece. Golding was also a strong believer in the existence of the Loch Ness Monster, writing papers and articles on the appearances of the monster.

Golding and his wife, Ann, moved to Perranarworthal in Cornwall in 1985, where he lived a reclusive and eccentric life. It was in the Cornish village that Golding passed away, due to heart failure, on June 19, 1993, at the age of 81. He was though returned to Bowerchalke, to be buried in the village churchyard. Ann passed away 18 months later.

Following his death, his last novel “The Double Tongue” (1995), a story of Ancient Greece and the oracle of Delphi, was published. Remembered for one novel, the rest of his writing career has been overlooked. Keen readers should look beyond “Lord of the Flies,” as there are some thought provoking novels amongst his works, many of which focus on the same issues of human nature and society.

Copyright - First Published 20th March 2008