The Children of Lovers

A memoir of William Golding by his daughter

Judy Golding

• Publisher: Faber & Faber
• eBook ISBN:
  9780571273416
• Year: 2011

'The Children of Lovers are Orphans.' Proverb

Bestselling novelist, author of Lord of the Flies, William Golding was a famously acute observer of children. What was it like to be his daughter?

In this frank and engaging family memoir, Judy Golding recalls growing up with a brilliant, loving, sometimes difficult parent. The years of her childhood and adolescence saw her father change from an impecunious schoolteacher to a famous novelist. Once adult, she came to understand some of the internal conflicts which led to his writing.

The Golding family life, both ordinary and extraordinary, always kept its characteristic warmth, humour, complexity, anger and love, danger and insecurity. This is a book about family and parents, about lovers and their children, and about our impact on one another - for good or ill.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Dedication
• Epigraph
• Table of Contents
• 1 : The Way We Were
• 2 : Two Small Children
• 3 : Life in a Fog
• 4 : The Old House at Marlborough
• 5 : A School for Gentlewomen
• 6 : Summer and the Sea
• 7 : Distant Rumbles of Fame
• 8 : Alec
• 9 : The Cold Light of Day
• 10 : Goodbye to the Old House
• 11 : Greek to Me
• 12 : Far, Far Away
• 13 : Breaking Down
• 14 : Breaking Away
• 15 : Grown Up
• 16 : Grandchildren
• 17 : Yesterday
• Acknowledgements
• Illustrations
• About the Author
• Copyright