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CHRONOLOGY
Unless otherwise stated, all Golding's
books are published by Faber and Faber. For a fuller account of Golding's
life, see 'A Biographical sketch' by Judy Carver in Mark Kinkead-Weekes and
Ian Gregor, William Golding: A critical study of the novels (3rd revised
edition, London: Faber, 2002. For a fuller account of Golding's published
works, see R A Gekoski and P A Grogan, William Golding: a bibliography
(London: Andre Deutsch, 1994). {} |
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In April, Golding took up a post at Bishop Wordsworth's School, and he and his
wife moved into a cottage in the Wiltshire village of Bowerchalke. In
September, the Goldings' first child, David, was born. In December Golding left
Bishop Wordsworth to join the navy.
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Golding's first active service was in HMS Galatea in the North Atlantic. He
then went to Liverpool where he spent many hours on guard duty in the Gladstone
Dock. In the spring of 1942 he was seconded to MD1, a weapons research unit
then in Buckinghamshire. However, in early 1943 he returned to sea at his own
request, and soon after was sent to New York to help bring minesweepers back to
the UK after they had been built in the New Jersey dockyards. Later he was
trained in Landing Crafts equipped with rocket guns, and it was in command of
such vessels that he took part in the naval support for the D Day landings and
the invasion of Walcheren.
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In July the Goldings' second and last child, Judith Diana, was born. In
September Golding left the navy and returned to Bishop Wordsworth's School.
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The Goldings moved to Salisbury.
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He began work on a novel he called 'Strangers from Within'.
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In January he started sending the novel to publishers. Many rejected it, until
in September Golding sent it to Faber and Faber, where it was eventually
accepted.
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In September, after changes to the text, it was published as Lord of the
Flies.
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The Inheritors was published.
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Pincher Martin was published. Golding also contributed the story 'Envoy
Extraordinary' to Sometime, Never: three tales of the imagination
(published by Eyre and Spottiswoode). The other two stories were by John
Wyndham and Mervyn Peake.
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By now Golding had some involvement with literary life in London. He started
writing for The Bookman and The Listener, and began broadcasting.
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The Brass Butterfly, his play starring Alistair Sim and adapted from his
story 'Envoy Extraordinary', opened in Oxford on 24 February, toured the
provinces, and then ran for a month in London. The text of the play was
published in July. In autumn the Goldings moved back to the village of
Bowerchalke. In November, Golding's father Alec was diagnosed with cancer, and
following an operation to remove the cancer he died suddenly of a heart attack
in hospital on 12 December.
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In October Free Fall was published.
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August his mother died.
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In the autumn Golding and his wife went to the USA, to Hollins, a women's
liberal arts college, in Virginia.
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While in America Golding worked on drafts of The Spire, as well as delivering
the first version of his lecture 'Fable', on Lord of the Flies. During
this year, he resigned from Bishop Wordsworth's School, and became a full time
writer.
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In May, Peter Brook's film of Lord of the Flies was shown at Cannes.
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The Spire was published in April.
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Golding collected some of his essays and reviews in The Hot Gates.
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The Pyramid was published in book form in June.
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Golding again began to find it difficult to write.
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The Scorpion God, which reprinted 'Envoy Extraordinary' and added two
new stories, was published in October. From the autumn of 1971 he kept a
journal, which started as a record of dreams but gradually became an account of
his attempts to write, and of personal experiences.
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Darkness Visible was published, winning the James Tait Black Memorial
Prize.
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Rites of Passage was published, winning the Booker McConnell Prize.
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A Moving Target, a new collection of essays and reviews, was published.
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This year, Golding was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.
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The Paper Men was published.
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An Egyptian Journal was published. The Goldings moved to Cornwall.
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Faber and Faber published William Golding: The Man and his Books. A Tribute
on his 75th Birthday, edited by John Carey.
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Close Quarters was published, a sequel to Rites of Passage.
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Golding was knighted.
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Fire Down Below, the final novel of the Sea Trilogy, was published,
bringing its hero Edmund Talbot to Australia.
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Golding celebrated his eightieth birthday. He revised the separate volumes of
his Sea Trilogy, to make a single volume, To the Ends of the Earth.
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In the autumn Golding was told he had a malignant melanoma on his face, and in
December, just after Christmas, it was removed.
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In January Golding began work on a new novel. However, early on the morning of
19 June he died of heart failure. Five days later, on Midsummer's Day, he was
buried in the churchyard at Bowerchalke.
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In November Golding was remembered at a memorial service in Salisbury
Cathedral.
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Ann Golding died on New Year's Day, eighteen months after her husband, and was
buried beside him in the graveyard at Bowerchalke. In June Golding's last
novel, The Double Tongue, was published.
From www.william-golding.co.uk
Searched and Seaved 02 12
2008