Programme Details

Fifty years ago William Golding published Lord of the Flies, a novel which was both critically and commercially acclaimed, and having been included on school syllabuses, read by many a schoolchild at the same age as its desert island abandoned schoolboy protagonists. It has subsequently been filmed twice and adapted for radio and for the stage. Extraordinarily, the book had been rejected by more than fifteen publishers and was picked off the reject pile before being published in 1954. William Golding went on to write 12 more novels and to win both the Booker and Nobel prizes.

In Night Waves Landmarks tonight poet and writer Blake Morrison and novelist Nigel Williams - who adapted Lord of the Flies for the Royal Shakespeare Company - discuss the books extraordinary story, what makes it a landmark in our culture and how its legacy extends far beyond the world of literature.