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

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?

Lord of the Flies is William Golding's classic debut novel, now republished to mark his centenary, with an introduction by Stephen King.

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'

What readers are saying:

'Every real human being should read this ... This is what we are.'

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'It can be read and re-read many times, and every time something new will appear.'

'There is a reason why this is studied at school ... Excellent read.'

'This is one of the few books I've read that I keep on my Kindle to read again.'

'I revisit this every few years and it's always fresh and impressive ... One of the best books I've ever read.'