Interview with William Golding

Interview with William Golding BBC Studio.

Present: Leanne Le Poidevin and William Golding

Leanne Le Poidevin is interviewing William Golding about his book,

Lord Of The Flies.

Leanne: Good afternoon Mr. Golding.

Mr Golding:Good afternoon to you.

Leanne:As we all know, Lord of the flies is about lots of boys trapped

on an island. What was the reason of putting just boys on the island?

Why were there no girls?

Mr Golding:At the time of the book, it was the war. Fighting and

arguing was going on around us, and it seemed as though nobody was

really sane anymore. It started off as being happy and positive, and

ended up being complete madness. Women were at home, doing the

housework, cooking food, you know? They didn't really have a choice in

anything. To be fair, they didn't really have much of a part in

everyday life. This is the image that I tried to portray on the

island. I felt that if I'd have put girls on the island, the book

would not have been so action-packed. Girls have a strange habit of

making the atmosphere a lot calmer, and I did not want this. I also

felt it would be hard to know the characters of girls. As a writer, I

feel it is essential to know your characters well, and because I was a

little boy, I do not know how a little girl would have felt at that

age. I wanted my characters to be believable, and by putting girls on

the island, I don't think I would have achieved this. I also realised

that girls go through many problems when they are growing up, and I

wanted my story to be an action one, not one full of relationships, I

e boys and girls. I don't think that the island I wanted to create

would have catered for their teenage needs, shall we say.

Leanne:Yes, I understand. Th...

... middle of paper ...

...ph is his only friend.

Leanne: Ah. Poor Piggy! Why did you put the Beastie idea into their

heads?

Mr Golding: Well I figured that by having young boys on an island,

there would be an element of fear. The most important part of the

chapter is when young Simon stands up and tells the group that the

Beastie is them. They are scared of themselves because of what they

have slowly turned into. The boys would obviously have been scared in

the night, but I specifically wanted the reader to know that the older

boys were turning into terrifying monsters that the little boys

couldn't handle anymore. They were bloodthirsty scavengers, who just

wanted to kill. This was making the young boys insecure.

Leanne: Well, Thankyou very much Mr. Golding. That was both very

interesting and informative. That's the end of our questions, so

Thankyou very much.

They exit.