Publication of Lord of the Flies

Lord of the Flies is the first novel by the British writer William Golding. It tells of a group of schoolboys stranded on an uninhabited Pacific island after a plane crash, who try to govern themselves and gradually descend into savagery. The conflict between Ralph, who represents order, and Jack, who leads a hunting tribe, ends in the death of Piggy and the hunt for Ralph himself. Golding wrote it partly in reaction to the optimistic children's adventure stories of the past, and it reflects his views on human nature after serving in the Second World War. After a slow start it became a classic widely taught in schools, and Golding won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1983.

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