William Golding: his life and work, philosophical outlook. Plan

Nobel Prize in Literature 1983

The Nobel Foundation cited:
'...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'.

Judy Golding's Memoir

In this frank and engaging memoir, Judy Golding recalls growing up with a brilliant, loving, sometimes difficult parent.
The Golding family life, both ordinary and extraordinary, always kept its characteristic warmth, humour, complexity, anger and love, danger and insecurity. This is a book about family and parents, about lovers and their children, and about our impact on one another – for good or ill.

After his return from the war, Golding began in earnest to write, but threw away his first three novels as “rubbish.” His fourth novel, Lord of the Flies, was rejected by more than twenty publishers, before becoming one of the largest selling books of the decade. By 1961, his successful books allowed Golding to leave his teaching post and spend a year as writer-in-residence at Hollins College in Virginia. He then became a full-time writer.

He was a fellow villager of James Lovelock in Wiltshire, and when Lovelock was explaining his Gaia Hypothesis, it was Golding who suggested naming it after the Greek personification of the earth.

Legacy

Lord of the Flies is a literary phenomenon; the title is instantly recognisable as a synonym for societal breakdown, the book has been read by millions worldwide, and it has been required reading in schools, colleges and universities for the last fifty years.
In addition to its impact on the literary world, the book pervades popular culture, spawning a variety of parodies, tributes and re-imaginings as well as providing inspiration to the most unlikely of cultural forms. There are episodes and references to the work in popular music, TV shows including The Walking Dead and Lost, and cartoons. Lord of the Flies is also frequently cited in news and political reporting.
Golding’s other novels also feature in diverse cultural and media forms, including Oliver Rudland’s opera Pincher Martin, and a three-part BBC mini-series adaptation of To the Ends of the Earth ‘A Sea Trilogy’, starring Benedict Cumberbatch. The Spire has been staged by Gareth Machin at Salisbury Playhouse. Artist Martin Bennett has long been inspired by Golding’s novels, reflected in his most recent exhibition.