The acknowledged starting point for 'A Sea Trilogy' was an
episode in Elizabeth Longford's biography of the Duke of
Wellington, a terrible story which made it necessary, Golding said,
for him to try to understand how someone could die of shame. But
the tragic story of the Reverend Colley, though central to the
work, is set in a context which had pre-occupied Golding for most
of his life − the world of the sea, and the ships which sail on it.
A lifelong obsession for him, as well, was the diagnosis and
delineation of the English disease of class. Golding fills the
unnamed old ship, where Colley suffers and dies, with a 'village'
of characters from the multifarious and precisely anatomised layers
of English life.
To the Ends of the Earth
To the Ends of the Earth is the 'Sea Trilogy' title for
three of Golding's most gripping - and funniest - novels: Rites
of Passage, Close Quarters, and Fire Down
Below. BBC 2 broadcast a three-part television dramatisation
of the trilogy in May-June 2005. The adaptation starred Benedict
Cumberbatch, Sam Neill, Victoria Hamilton and Jared Harris, and was
filmed partly in South Africa, near Capetown.
BBC TV adaptation of Golding's 'To the Ends of the Earth'
John Carey's new biography of William Golding
Drawing almost entirely on materials that have never before been
made public, John Carey, the distinguished writer and critic, sheds
new light on Golding. Through hundreds of letters, unpublished
works and Golding's intimate journals, Carey draws a revelatory and
definitive portrait of an extraordinary man. In an absorbing and
compelling narrative, he reveals a many-sided figure: a war-hero, a
reclusive depressive who considered himself a 'monster', a family
man, a victim of fears and phobias who battled against alcoholism,
and a writer who trusted the imagination above all things.
Follow the link below to hear 'audio snippets' where Carey reads
from his highly praised new biography.
William Golding: The Man Who Wrote Lord of the Flies