The Book Club: Judy Golding

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🗓️ 1 December 2021

⏱️ 35 minutes

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Summary

This year Faber and Faber started the project of republishing the late Nobel Laureate William Golding's back catalogue -- starting with Pincher Martin, The Inheritors and The Spire. Sam is joined by his daughter Judy Golding -- author of The Children of Lovers: A Memoir of William Golding By His Daughter-- to talk about Golding the writer and Golding the man. What were the deep fears that drove his work and were eased by drink? How did the war change his worldview? And what was the nature of the religious sensibility that underpinned his visionary allegories of folly and evil?

Transcript

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0:00.0	The Spectator magazine combines incisive political analysis with books and arts reviews of unrivaled authority. Absolutely free. Go to spectator.com.uk forward slash voucher.
0:28.9	Hello and welcome to the Spectator Book Club podcast. I'm Sam Leith, the literary editor of the
0:33.6	Spectator. And this week I'm very pleased to be joined by Judy Golding, the daughter of the late Nobel laureate William Golding.
0:40.4	Judy's the author of Children of Lovers, a memoir of William Golding by his daughter.
0:45.5	And we're here to talk about the way in which Fabor and Fabor are reissuing William Golding's canon in batches of three,
0:52.6	the first being the inheritors, Pinch and Martin, and the spire with new introductions.
0:58.9	And Judy, first thing is saying, obviously, the one they're not reissuing or don't need to because it's been so continually in print and prominently is Lord of the Flies.
1:08.2	And your father obviously is, you know, he's the Lord of the Flies guy.
1:12.4	How much do you think that has shaped his reputation? Do you think that's right? I mean, you know,
1:17.6	has it cast the success of that book cast the rest of his canon sort of into the background a bit?
1:23.3	Hi, Sam, and thank you for asking me on your podcast. I think, yes, it has. It has cast
1:29.6	the others into the shade. You have to remember, well, it's a good idea to remember, my dad was
1:35.0	always mesmerized by his good luck, as he saw it partly, in having Lord of the Flies become this
1:43.2	extraordinary thing.
1:45.0	And also he was a very superstitious man.
1:48.0	So he would never have said anything like,
1:51.0	I'm sorry that Lord of the Flies has done so well.
1:53.0	In fact, I feel terrible even saying that,
1:56.0	because he knew that it had given him a lot of freedom via money and also fame and people took him
2:03.6	seriously and maybe the other novels got a bit of a lift from Lord of the Flies while simultaneously
2:11.6	being compared with it I mean he he felt his best novel as I expect you was the inheritors, the one he wrote after Lord of the Flyers.
2:21.0	And I think he's probably right, actually. I think it's a great, extraordinary novel. But we won't quarrel with the success of Lord of the Flies. I mean, you know.
	...

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