Sunday, March 11, 2012

William Golding, sailor

Been overloaded with work at JP HQ so likely to be gaps between postings.

Today's short post is to point you towards this article about Nobel and Booker prize winning author William Golding who wrote Lord of the Flies.

Apparently he was a keen sailor until an accident at sea in the fog in which he lost his ship and nearly the lives of him and his crew.



Picture from: The Guardian

4 comments:

Tillerman said...

His brother was my history master at school.

O Docker said...

Remarkable that he managed to win the Nobel Prize, despite attending the wrong university.

JP said...

Tillerman: its a small world

O'Docker: well spotted. I think we can forgive him that lapse given his service in WW2

Tillerman said...

I remember reading The Spire, probably while still at school, not long after publication.

My history teacher, William Golding's brother, was universally known as Gus by the boys at school, for reasons I never did discover. He looked quite a lot like the pictures of his brother I have found on the web. It was rumored that he went to the pub across the road from our school for a quick pint every day during the morning break. If true, his teaching didn't suffer for it.

I have a very fond memory of him congratulating me for a wholly unexpected (to me) academic achievement during my first term at the school. Sometimes, a few kind words is all you need to start believiing in yourself.