Sir William Gerald Golding
(1911-1993), WriterSitter 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.
Watch a film clip on the sitter from the BBC Archive in the Media section below
by Michael Ayrton
pen and ink and wash, 1965
NPG 5536
by Adrian George
oil on canvas, 1986
NPG 5922
by Howard Coster
matte bromide print, 1955
NPG x1878
by Mark Gerson
modern bromide print, August 1970
NPG x88212
by Paul Joyce
bromide print on card mount, May 1977
NPG x13430
by David Hills
colour print, 11 December 1989
NPG x47311
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