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William Golding: A Literary Colossus

The first title that springs to mind at the mention of William Golding’s name is most often Lord of the Flies. The classic story of a group of schoolboys marooned on a desert island all but made his reputation – and has somewhat overshadowed his twelve other novels. Now, the Slightly Foxed team sit down with the author’s daughter Judy and Golding expert Professor Tim Kendall to discuss the life and work of this brave and highly original writer.

Golding’s novels transport the reader to distant but entirely believable worlds, grappling with the big questions of existence as he struggled with his addiction to alcohol and the fame his writing would bring him. His originality as a writer sometimes worked against him: Lord of the Flies was rejected by seven publishers before it was accepted by Charles Monteith at Faber, where it would go on to be glowingly reviewed and become a bestseller.

Born in Newquay in 1911, Golding spent his childhood in Wiltshire, and would serve in the Navy during the Second World War. Both the sea and his west country origins were always important to him: Judy speaks fondly of his connection to the county, a place he felt was ancient. It was Savernake Forest that inspired his setting for The Inheritors, his second novel, in which he imagines the first confrontation between the peace-loving Neanderthals and the more aggressive Homo Sapiens. After a poor reception from the critics for several of his following books, including both The Spire and The Pyramid, Golding was thrown into a deep depression. This crisis lasted over ten years, but when he finally returned to writing he went on to produce a series of successful novels – including Rites of Passage, winner of the 1980 Booker Prize. In 1983 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Golding was a fascinating and often troubled man, a voracious reader who enjoyed the Odyssey in Greek as well as Georgette Heyer and Jilly Cooper. He was an influence on many novelists from Stephen King to Penelope Lively: definitely a writer ripe for reappraisal.

The usual round of reading recommendations include South from Granada, Gerald Brenan’s account of the years he spent in an Andalusian village in the 1920s with visits from the Bloomsbury group; Robert Harris’s Precipice, a semi-fictional account of the relationship in 1914 between Prime Minister Asquith and Venetia Stanley, and Penelope Lively’s novel Passing On.

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Show Notes

Books Mentioned

Please find links to books, articles, and further reading listed below. We may be able to get hold of second-hand copies of the out-of-print titles mentioned on the podcast and listed below. Please get in touch with the Slightly Foxed office for more information. The digits in brackets following each listing refer to the minute and second they are mentioned. (Episode duration: minutes; seconds)

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William Golding, Lord of the Flies (3:02)

William Golding, The Inheritors (3:58)

William Golding, Rites of Passage (4:34)

William Golding, The Double Tongue (4:38)

Judy Golding, The Children of Lovers (15:37)

William Golding, Pincher Martin (25:35)

William Golding, The Spire (27:36)

William Golding, Darkness Visible (38:13)

James Lovelock, Gaia (43:20)

Homer, Odyssey (44:55)

Georgette Heyer, The Black Moth (45:08)

Jilly Cooper, Polo (45:25)

Gerald Brenan, South from Grenada (52:19) 

Laurie Lee, As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning (52:47)

Robert Harris, Precipice (54:10) 

Penelope Lively, Moon Tiger (56:39) 

Penelope Lively, Passing On (56:45)

Related Slightly Foxed Articles

Infinite Depths. . . , Penelope Lively on the novels of William Golding, Issue 7

. . . and Tempests and Doldrums, Andrew Sinclair on the novels of William Golding, Issue 7

Jocelin’s Folly, Andrew Joynes on William Golding, The Spire, Issue 71

From World to World, Nick Hunt on William Golding, The Inheritors, Issue 83

  • Infinite Depths . . .
    1 September 2005

    Infinite Depths . . .

    William Golding’s is not a large oeuvre: fifteen books, a play, an unfinished novel. Rereading everything, I am struck by the modesty of the pile through which I have worked, and the brevity of the books. He pared fiction down to bony essentials: an entire universe in the 223 pages of Lord of the Flies, or the 233 of The Inheritors. I wanted to try to identify what it is that sets him apart – on a pedestal, as far as I am concerned.
  • . . . and Tempests and Doldrums
    1 September 2005

    . . . and Tempests and Doldrums

    William Golding was the only writer I have ever pursued. An Angry Young novel I wrote in three weeks when up at Cambridge, The Breaking of Bumbo, outsold Lord of the Flies that year for Faber & Faber. This was ludicrous, but it was followed by Golding’s kindness when I wrote to him. He sent me an open invitation to visit him by the watercress beds at Bowerchalke, halfway between Salisbury Cathedral and Stonehenge – midway between the new and the ancient faiths.
  • Jocelin’s Folly
    1 September 2021

    Jocelin’s Folly

    Across the east end of the nave of Canterbury Cathedral, where I was a volunteer guide for over a decade, there is a stone strainer arch erected by Prior Thomas Goldstone 500 years ago. It is a kind of tiebar, one of six which bind together the columns that support Bell Harry Tower, the cathedral’s dominant feature. The arch is essential to the integrity of the building’s central structure and is decorated with flowered designs and an inscription. On either side of the Prior’s initials and his rebus – three golden pebbles, a visual pun on his surname – there is the first verse of the psalm that begins Non nobis Domine (‘Not unto us, O Lord, but unto thy name give glory . . .’).
  • From World to World
    1 September 2024

    From World to World

    We are observing a group of people trying to find a log. The log is not where they left it. They have been away for some time. Now it is not where it was, and they are perturbed. It is, we gather, a long log. They need it in order to cross a marsh. Finally one of them – he is called Lok – has the bright idea of finding another log, and putting it where the old one was. His companions are deeply impressed by this. A new log is located and moved by communal effort. Now they can cross the marsh to get to where they want to go. They take it in turns to walk along the log, but one of them, an old man, falls into the water. They pull him out, but he is wet and cold, and starts shivering. This seems to trouble them much more than we might expect. We infer that being cold represents a mortal threat.

Other Links

William Golding

Opening music: Preludio from Violin Partita No. 3 in E Major by Bach

Hosted by Rosie Goldsmith
Produced by Philippa Goodrich

 


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