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William Golding was born in Saint Columb Minor, Cornwall, England. Mildred, his mother, fought for women’s right to vote. Alex, his father, worked as a schoolmaster.
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William went to Brasenose College at Oxford University, after primary school. William studied English literature, although his father wanted him to become a scientist. He published his first work a year before graduating.
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William got married in 1939. He married Ann Brookfield. They later had two children.
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William fought battleships at the sinking of the Bismarck. He fended off submarines and planes. He was a lieutenant placed in command of a rocket-launching craft.
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William temporarily abandoned his profession of teaching to join the Royal Navy and fight in World War II. He next six years on a boat. He also assisted Lord Cherwell at the Naval Research Establishment during his seven month stint in New York. His son David was born.
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Things from the war became material for his fiction. World War II had ended in 1945. William went back to writing and teaching and his daughter Judith was born.
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William published Lord of the Flies in 1954 after 21 rejections. The novel is widely regarded as a classic. This book set the tone for William’s future work
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A year after William retired from teaching, Peter Brook made a film adaptation of Lord of the Files. Two decades after this William would be awarded a Noble Peace Prize. He would also be knighted a few years after being awarded.
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William wrote many successful novels. One being Rites of Passage. It won the 1980 Booker McConnell Prize.
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William spent the last few years of his life in near Falmouth, Cornwall. He died of a heart attack in Perranarworthal, Cornwall. His completed manuscript for The Double Tongue was published after his death.