William Golding

A plane crashes on a desert island and the only survivors, a group of schoolboys, assemble on the beach and wait to be rescued. By day they inhabit a land of bright fantastic birds and dark blue seas, but at night their dreams are haunted by the image of a terrifying beast. As the boys' delicate sense of order fades,...

The iconic classic in a luxurious anniversary edition, with a foreword by Stephen King. There aren't any grown-ups anywhere. A plane crashes on a desert island. The only survivors are a group of schoolboys. By day, they explore the dazzling beaches, gorging on fruit, seeking shelter, and ripping off their uniforms to swim in the lagoon. At night, in the...

Lord of the Flies by William Golding is a riveting tale of survival, societal breakdown, and the darkness within human nature. Set on a deserted island, the novel follows a group of boys stranded after a plane crash. As they attempt to govern themselves, their makeshift society gradually descends into chaos and savagery. Through powerful, symbolic storytelling, Golding masterfully explores...

A plane crashes on an uninhabited island and the only survivors, a group of schoolboys, assemble on the beach and wait to be rescued. By day they inhabit a land of bright fantastic birds and dark blue seas, but at night their dreams are haunted by the image of a terrifying beast. In this, his first novel, William Golding gave...

'A complex literary comedy from an extraordinarily powerful writer.' Malcolm Bradbury 'The great unbreakable wild horse of the 1960s British literary stable.' Rose Tremain 'Rich as a compost heap.' Melvyn Bragg Why should I conceal the fact that I had found a full professor of Eng. Lit. rifling my dustbin? Fame, fortune, alcoholism, a failing marriage: for novelist Wilfred Barclay,...

This tropical nowhere was the whole world - the whole imaginable world. A decrepit warship is becalmed halfway to Australia, stilled in an ocean wilderness of heat and sea mists. In this surreal, fête-like atmosphere, a ball is held with a passing ship: the passengers dance and flirt, while beneath them seaweed like green hair spreads ominously over the hull....

ONE OF THE BBC'S '100 NOVELS THAT SHAPED OUR WORLD' 'The first book with hands - strong ones that reached out of the pages and seized me by the throat. It said to me, 'This is not just entertainment; it's life or death.' ... I've been thinking about it ever since, for fifty years and more.' - Stephen King 'One...

Aime de Jongh's stunning reimagining has a visceral impact all its own. The Times Beautifully imagined ... so poignant and relevant. CHRIS MOULD Just as compelling and evocative as Golding's world-shaking masterpiece. Comics Review Before The Stand and The Hunger Games, before Battle Royale and Yellowjackets, there was Lord of the Flies. A plane crashes on a desert island. The...

ONE OF THE BBC'S '100 NOVELS THAT CHANGED OUR WORLD''Exciting, relevant and thought provoking.' STEPHEN KING'One of my favourite books.' SUZANNE COLLINS'Exemplary.' IAN MCEWANWith an Introduction by Producer Joel Wilson, Director Marc Munden and Writer Jack Thorne'There aren't any grown-ups anywhere.'A plane crashes on a desert island. The only survivors are a group of schoolboys. By day, they explore the...

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Did I believe in what I was doing? Or rather, since I was doing nothing, did I believe in what someone, something was doing to me? It begins with the half-burnt fish, miraculously restored to life, and the healing of the ill child. Young Arieka is an unloved misfit, but as rumours of her spiritual powers reach the High Priest...

There were three sorts of people. Those who ran, those who stayed, and those who were built in. Dean Jocelin has a vision: that God has chosen him to erect a great spire. His master builder fearfully advises against it, for the old cathedral was miraculously built without foundations. But Jocelin is obsessed with fashioning his prayer in stone, and...

I grow a little crazy, I think, like all men at sea who live too close to each other and too close thereby to all that is monstrous under the sun and moon . . . Edmund Talbot is sailing to Australia in the early nineteenth century. In his journal, he records mounting tensions aboard the ancient, stinking warship, as...

An hour on this rock is a lifetime. Christopher Martin, the sole survivor of a torpedoed destroyer, is stranded upon a rock in the middle of the Atlantic. Pitted against him are the sea, the sun, the brutal cold, and the aching terror of his isolation. To drink there is a pool of rainwater; to eat, seaweed and anemones, preyed...

I think there has been death in my hands. On the last stretch of its epic voyage from England to Australia, a disintegrating warship inches towards land. But there are still trials ahead, as the vessel is smashed against an ice cliff and blasted by a great storm, while the claustrophobic passengers battle erotic desires, masculine rivalry and violent power...

A figure had condensed out of the shuddering backdrop of the glare. He is born in fire: a naked child in the blood-red flames of London's Blitz. Miraculously saved but grotesquely burned, this mysterious orphan is named Matty. Doomed to a life of torment, he becomes a wanderer, a spiritual seeker after unknown redemption. They are also lost children: neglected...

This was a different voice; not the voice of the people. It was the voice of other. When spring comes, the people leave their winter cave, foraging for honey and shoots, bulbs and grubs, the hot richness of a deer's brain. They awaken the fire to heat their naked bodies, lay down their thorn bushes, and share pictures in their...