William Golding

British novelist, poet, playwright and Nobel Prize for Literature laureate (1911–1993)

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Lived 1911–1993, aged 82United Kingdom

United Kingdom WritersWriter / Author

Wikipedia
99 languages
Cross-language footprint
Era
1911–1993
Aged 82
Known for
Lord of the Flies
1990

Summary

Updated 2026-06-21

He wrote a novel about schoolboys stranded on an island who descend into savagery, and it became one of the most assigned books in English-language education — a story that refuses to let civilization off easy.

Biography

About

William Gerald Golding was born on 19 September 1911 in Britain. His debut novel, Lord of the Flies, arrived in 1954 and made his name; over his lifetime he published twelve more volumes of fiction. In 1980 he won the Booker Prize for Rites of Passage, the opening book of a sea trilogy called To the Ends of the Earth. Three years later, in 1983, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. He was knighted in 1988 and named a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. He died on 19 June 1993. Fifteen years later, The Times placed him third on its list of the fifty greatest British writers sinc…

Voice

In their own words

Sourced, dated quotes from William Golding

William Golding

said1985

The writer probably knows what he meant when he wrote a book, but he should immediately forget what he meant when he's written it.

— As quoted in Novelists in Interview (1985) edited by John Haffenden

William Golding

said11 Apr 1980

Reason, when it is refined into logic, has something to offer but only in terms of itself and depends for its effect and use on the nature of the premise.

— "Belief and Creativity" Address in Hamburg (11 April 1980); as quoted in Moving Target (2013), Faber & Faber

William Golding

said1980