William Golding

“The book is in the form of a journal, or series of letters written as a journal, in a book destined for the hero’s godfather. The hero is a callow young man called Edmund Talbot, on the edges of the aristocracy—his godfather is a Lord. He’s hoping for his godfather’s patronage. Out in Australia, he is supposed to become an assistant to the governor and therefore rise through the colonial government, and presumably ultimately return to Britain to take up a place in public life. My father had a lot of fun writing this book. He said that was part of the reason why he then wrote two more books on the subject; he kept on thinking of silly things for Edmund to say. It’s a very subtle piece of writing that you can appreciate in terms of its craft.” Read more...

The Best William Golding Books

Judy Golding, Memoirist

“On one hand, it’s the story of this boy Matthew Septimus Windrove who walks out of an impossibly hot fire during the Blitz, the bombing of London during the Second World War. He walks from a fire so hot it could melt metal. The second story is about a girl called Sophy, one of a pair of twins who are both very neglected by their father. Somehow this creates a kind of vacancy in their minds that they fill with disruptiveness. It’s very complicated, but immensely readable.” Read more...

The Best William Golding Books

Judy Golding, Memoirist

“In The Spire, he writes about a visionary. Jocelin is someone who has basically been overpromoted. He’s been kicked up through the ranks of the Church because his aunt was the mistress of the then-king. Jocelyn, now in a position of enormous power, has this vision: he’s going to put a spire on top of the cathedral, which will act as an enormous stone prayer. To achieve it, he’s prepared to do almost anything, and those compromises destroy him and several other people.” Read more...

The Best William Golding Books

Judy Golding, Memoirist

“The narrative is a remarkable rendition of the state of mind of the last group of Neanderthals as they try to survive—with all the perils that they usually face, but with an additional threat of the new Homo sapiens people, who are logical and successful and have already developed weapons and other survival strategies. The Neanderthals are mild, gentle people who have trouble with logical thought, communicate by telepathy, and have a mode of thought organised in pictures. The novel tells the story of how the peoples come into contact with one another, and that contact is an astonishing piece of writing.” Read more...

The Best William Golding Books

Judy Golding, Memoirist

“I think his imagination was terrible to him, because it was so vivid and he could not escape. He described the intensity of it. Sometimes he said he had to externalise this imagination in order to deal with it because he just couldn’t keep it in.” Read more...

The Best William Golding Books

Judy Golding, Memoirist