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Biography

Early life

William Golding was born in his grandmother's house, 47 Mountwise, St. Columb Minor, Newquay, Cornwall^[2] and he spent many childhood holidays there. He grew up at his family home in Marlborough, Wiltshire, where his father (Alec Golding) was a science master at Marlborough Grammar School (1905 to retirement). Alec Golding was a socialist with a strong commitment to scientific rationalism, and the young Golding and his elder brother Joseph attended the school where his father taught.^[3] His mother, Mildred, kept house at 29, The Green, Marlborough, and supported the moderate campaigners for female suffrage. In 1930 Golding went to Oxford University as an undergraduate at Brasenose College, where he read Natural Sciences for two years before transferring to English Literature.

Golding's biographer John Carey claimed in 2009 that Golding admits in a diary to attempted rape while he was an undergraduate^[4]. The victim, whose name was Dora, was known to Golding from when she was 13 and he three years older; the attempted rape occurred two years later, when Golding was home from his first year at Oxford.^[4] Following the attempted rape, the pair met again two years later at which point, according to reports, they consummated their relationship.^[4] Carey attests that Golding was ashamed of his relationship with Dora, which he - Golding - considered demonstrative of his own "monstrous"^[4] character. Carey also relates that Dora achieved a form of revenge, by persuading Golding's father to spy on the pair having sex in the open air: "She wanted to show [Alec Golding] that his two sons were not exemplary^[4].

Golding took his B.A. (Hons) Second Class in the summer of 1934, and later that year his first book, Poems, was published in London by Macmillan & Co, through the help of his Oxford friend, the anthroposophist Adam Bittleston. Golding was an avid animal rights activist.

Marriage and family

Golding married Ann Brookfield on 30 September 1939 and they had two children, Judy and David.^[2]

War service

During World War II, Golding fought in the Royal Navy and was briefly involved in the pursuit and sinking of Germany's mightiest battleship, the Bismarck. He also participated in the invasion of Normandy on D-Day, commanding a landing ship that fired salvoes of rockets onto the beaches, and then in a naval action at Walcheren in which 23 out of 24 assault craft were sunk.^[5] At the war's end he returned to teaching and writing.^[2]

Death

In 1985 Golding and his wife moved to Tullimaar House at Perranarworthal, near Truro, Cornwall, where he died of heart failure, 8 years later, on 19 June 1993. He was buried in the village churchyard at Bowerchalke, South Wiltshire (near the Hampshire and Dorset county boundaries). He left the draft of a novel, The Double Tongue, set in ancient Delphi, which was published posthumously.^[6][7]