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William Golding

By The_FuzzyPanda

  • William's birth

    William's birth
    William Golding was born on September 19, 1911, in Saint Columb Minor, Cornwell, England.

  • Childhood

    Childhood
    William Golding lived in a 14th century home next to a graveyard. His mother (Mildred) was an active suffragette who fought for women's right to vote. His father (Alex) worked as a school master. At 12 years old he tried but failed to write a novel and took out his frustration on his peers in school.

  • Schooling

    Schooling
    William Golding received early education at the school his father ran. After primary school he went to Brasenose College at Oxford University and studied English literature. A year before he graduated he published his first work, a book of poetry aptly entitled Poems. It was largely overlooked by critics.

  • Teaching

    Teaching
    After he graduated,William worked in settlement houses and the theater for a period of time. After that he took up a position teaching English and philosophy at Bishop Wordsworth's School in Salisbury. William teaching these unruly boys inspired him to eventually write his novel Lord of the Flies.

  • Married Life

    Married Life
    William Golding married his wife, Ann Brookfield, at their house near Falmouth, Cornwell in 1939 before he joined the Navy. They had two children, David born in 1940 and Judith born in 1945.

  • War World II

    War World II
    Golding joined the Royal Navy and fought in World War II. He spent a better part of 6 years on a boat except for a seven-month stint in New York. That period of time was where he developed a lifelong romance with sailing and the sea. He fought battleships at the sinking of the Bismarck, fended off submarines and planes, and was even placed under command of a rocket-launching craft. After the war ended he went back to teaching.

  • Lord of the Flies

    Lord of the Flies
    After being rejected 21 times, Golding finally got his first and most acclaimed novel, Lord of the Flies published. The book set the tone for Golding's future work where he continued to demonstrate and examine man's internal struggle between good and evil.

  • Important Events

    Important Events
    After Golding retired from teaching, Peter Brook made a film adaptation of the critically acclaimed novel. Two decades later Golding was awarded the 1983 Nobel Prize for Literature.

  • Other Important Events

    Other Important Events
    He was knighted by England's Queen Elizabeth II and in 1990 a new film version of Lord of the Flies was released, bringing the book to the attention of new readers from all generations.

  • Death

    Death
    William Golding died from a heart attack in Perranarworthal, Cornwall. After he died, his completed manuscript for The Double Tongue was published posthumously.