British novelist and poet Nobel Prize winner Best known for his novel Lord of the Flies.

British novelist and poet

Nobel Prize winner

Best known for his novel

Lord of the Flies

In 1985 Golding and his wife moved to Cornwall, where he died of heart failure on June 19, 1993.

He was buried in the village churchyard.

Golding & wife Ann Golding and Ann (m. 1939) taken on leave during the Second

World War autumn 1944

Golding & infant daughter Judy

summer 1946

Golding hears Nobel newsOctober 1983.

Golding at Nobel Ceremony

10 December 1983Golding receives

Nobel Prize

Sir William and Lady GoldingNewly knighted

at Buckingham Palace, July 1988

Lord of the Flies is an allegorical novel that discusses how culture, created by man, fails, using as an example a group of British school-boys stuck on a deserted island who try to govern themselves but with disastrous results.

William GoldingThe Nobel Prize in Literature 1983

In 2005, the novel was chosen by TIME magazine as one of the 100 best English-language novels from 1923 to the present.

William GoldingThe Nobel Prize in Literature 1983

Published in 1954, Lord of the Flies became a bestseller only by 1960. It was required reading in many schools and colleges.

William GoldingThe Nobel Prize in Literature 1983

The title is said to be a reference to the Hebrew name Beelzebub ( "god of the fly", "host of the fly" or literally "Lord of Flies"), a name sometimes used as a synonym for Satan.

William GoldingThe Nobel Prize in Literature 1983

The book was written during the first years of the Cold War and the atomic age; the events arise in the context of an unnamed nuclear war.

The main theme is the conflicting impulses towards civilization (to live by rules, peacefully and in harmony), and towards the will to power .

The story itself takes place on an isolated island. A plane has crashed and there are no adult survivors.

The survivors rapidly side with one of two dominant boys: Ralph and another older boy named Jack -the head of a choir group.

The children split into two groups.

William GoldingThe Nobel Prize in Literature 1983

For a time, the boys work together building

shelters, gathering food and water, and keeping the

fire going. Ralph's group continues holding the belief

that preserving the signal fire is the necessary focus.

William GoldingThe Nobel Prize in Literature 1983

Jack becomes the chief of his own tribe,

focusing on hunting and gradually, Jack and his

group turn to being savages, having murdered

two of the boys and intending to kill Ralph.

William GoldingThe Nobel Prize in Literature 1983

Jack, nearly complete in his demonic role as the ultimate savage, sets the entire island ablaze.

However, the fire started by Jack is so large that it has attracted the attention of a nearby warship. Ralph is rescued.

The readers become aware of the darkness of human nature.

William GoldingThe Nobel Prize in Literature 1983

William GoldingThe Nobel Prize in Literature 1983