William Golding (1911 - 1993) was born in Cornwall and educated at Marlborough Grammar School and Brasenose College, Oxford. Before becoming a writer, he was an actor, small-boat sailor, musician and schoolteacher. In 1940 he joined the Royal Navy and took part in the D-Day operation and liberation of Holland. Lord of the Flies, his first novel, was rejected by several publishers but rescued from the 'reject pile' at Faber and published in 1954. It became a modern classic selling millions of copies, translated into 44 languages and made into a film by Peter Brook in 1963. Golding wrote eleven other novels, a play and two essay collections. He won the Booker Prize for Rites of Passage in 1980 and the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1983. He was knighted in 1988 and died in 1993. william-golding.co.uk

Eine Gruppe englischer Schuljungen gerät infolge eines Flugzeugunfalls auf eine unbewohnte Insel im Pazifischen Ozean. Kein Erwachsener überlebt. Zunächst erscheint der Verlust zivilisatorischer Ordnungsprinzipien leicht zu bewältigen: Auf der Insel gibt es Wasser, Früchte, sogar wilde Schweine, die erlegt werden können. Ralph läßt Hütten bauen, erkundet die Insel, richtet einen Wachdienst für das Signalfeuer ein. Der gute Anfang aber führt in eine Krise, die bald diabolische Formen annimmt. Aus der Jagd wird blutiges Schlachten - die Jäger und die Hüter des Feuers geraten in einen Kampf auf Leben und Tod. Die Gemeinschaft zerfällt, Terror und barbarische Primitivität gipfeln im Machtrausch, der auch Mord nicht ausschließt.

Lord of the Flies is William Golding's classic debut novel, now one of the most celebrated literary works of the twentieth century.

William Golding's Lord of the Flies is a dystopian classic: 'exciting, relevant and thought-provoking' (Stephen King). When a group of schoolboys are stranded on a desert island, what could go wrong?

'One of my favorite books - I read it every couple of years.' (Suzanne Collins, author of The Hunger Games)

A plane crashes on a desert island. The only survivors are a group of schoolboys. By day, they discover fantastic wildlife and dazzling beaches, learning to survive; at night, they are haunted by nightmares of a primitive beast. Orphaned by society, it isn't long before their innocent childhood games devolve into a savage, murderous hunt ...

'Stands out mightily in my memory ... Such a strong statement about the human heart.' (Patricia Cornwell)

'Terrifying and haunting.' (Kingsley Amis)

'Beautifully written, tragic and provocative.' (E. M. Forster)

ONE OF THE BBC'S ICONIC 'NOVELS THAT SHAPED OUR WORLD'

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