Timeline: William Golding

Sep 19, 1911

Birth

William Golding was born on September 19th, 1911, in a Cornish village, and grew up in Newquay.

1930

Schooling

He began studies in the natural sciences at the University of Oxford but soon abandoned them to instead devote himself to English literature. For several years he worked as a teacher before enlisting in the British Navy in 1940.

1934

Poems were publishes

William Golding’s status as an author was established when he had his poems published by Macmillan.

1939

Marriage

His marriage to Anne Brookfield took place in Maidstone.

1940

First child

David (born September 1940)

1940

British Navy

In 1940 William Goldings enlisted in the British Navy. He took part in the action that saw the sinking of the German battleship Bismarck and commanded a rocket-launching craft during the invasion of France in 1944.

1944

Second child

Judith (born July 1945).

Sep 17, 1954

First novel published

William Golding's first novel "Lord of the Flies" was published on September 17th, 1954.

1980

Nobel Prize award

Golding was finally to receive the appreciation he deserved in 1983 when awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, ‘for his novels which, with the perspicuity of realistic narrative art and the diversity and universality of myth, illuminate the human condition in the world of today’.