Sir William Gerald Golding (1911-1993), Writer

Sitter in 8 portraits
Writer. Born in Cornwall and educated at Marlborough Grammar School and Oxford, Golding worked as an actor and producer in small theatre companies before becoming a teacher. He served in the navy, commanding a rocket ship during the Second World War. His first novel Lord of the Flies (1954) was an immediate success. Other novels followed, among them Pincher Martin (1956), The Spire (1964), and Darkness Visible (1979). His work considers the cruelty in human nature in extreme situations. Rites of Passage won the Booker Prize in 1980. Golding was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1983.