Golding

[paulkincaid]

The other day the BBC repeated the Arena documentary on William Golding, first shown in the 1990s. It reminded me how much I loved these dark novels of belief and disappointment. In particular I mean those four novels at the start of his career, after the crowd-pleasing warm-up act of Lord of the Flies. Those next four novels, The Inheritors, Pincher Martin, Free Fall, and The Spire, I have read countless times. They are brief and immense at the same time, and there isn't a single occasion when I haven't been left shaking and breathless at the end of every re-read. I've reviewed his work a few times, but I always wanted to write something longer, more substantial about him. Probably another of those ambitions that will never be fulfilled; but I can always re-read him yet again.