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Born.
William Golding was born in Cornwall, England. His mother was Mildred. His father was Alec, a school teacher, whose footprints William would soon follow. -
William started teaching.
In 1935 he started teaching English and philosophy in Salisbury. -
Getting hitched.
The couple had married in 1939 and had two children, David (b. 1940) and Judith (b. 1945). -
Leaving His Teaching Job
He temporarily left teaching in 1940 to join the Royal Navy. Golding spent the better part of the next six years on a boat, except for a seven-month stint in New York, where he assisted Lord Cherwell at the Naval Research Establishment. -
Lord of the Flies
In 1954, after 21 rejections, Golding published his first and most acclaimed novel, Lord of the Flies. The novel told the gripping story of a group of adolescent boys stranded on a deserted island after a plane wreck. -
The movie has been made.
In 1963, the year after Golding retired from teaching, Peter Brook made a film adaptation of the critically acclaimed novel. -
Nobel Prize winner.
Two decades later, at the age of 73, Golding was awarded the 1983 Nobel Prize for Literature. -
Movie remade.
In 1990 a new film version of the Lord of the Flies was released, bringing the book to the attention of a new generation of readers. -
What happened towards the end of his career?
Golding spent the last few years of his life quietly living with his wife, Ann Brookfield, at their house near Falmouth, Cornwall, where he continued to toil at his writing. -
The passing.
On June 19, 1993, Golding died of a heart attack in Perranarworthal, Cornwall. After Golding died, his completed manuscript for The Double Tongue was published posthumously.
