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William is born
William Golding was born in Cornwall in 1911. -
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Early life
He was raised in a 14th-century house next door to a graveyard. His mother, Mildred, was an active suffragette who fought for women’s right to vote. His father, Alex, worked as a schoolmaster.William received his early education at the school his father ran, Marlborough Grammar School. When William was just 12 years old -
Reading
He began reading Tennyson at age seven and steeped himself in Shakespeare's work -
College
He attended Oxford where he began as a science major but later changed his major to English literature. -
Work
From 1935 to 1939, Golding worked as a writer, actor, and producer with a small theater in an unfashionable part of London, paying his bills with a job as a social worker. -
Teaching
William Golding started teaching English and philosophy in Salisbury in 1935. He temporarily left teaching in 1940 to join the Royal Navy. -
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Millitary
The five years Golding spent in the navy (from 1940 to 1945) made an enormous impact, exposing him to the incredible cruelty and barbarity of which humankind is capable. -
First book
In 1954 he published his first novel, Lord of the Flies. In 1983, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. -
Stopped teaching
he remained in the teaching position until 1961 when he left Bishop Wordsworth's School to write full time. -
Death
Golding died in Cornwall in 1993.