Books

Yesterday I went to Bishop Wordsworth's School in Salisbury to talk to the boys there about William Golding's 15 years as a teacher in their school and the effect I thought it had on his writing. The talk was in the school chapel, where Golding, during the religious crisis he went through after his wartime experiences in the navy, spent many hours in solitary prayer.

Book Prize

Last Friday I went to Edinburgh for the award ceremong of the 2010 James Tait Black Memorial Prizes. The James Tait Black is the oldest literary prize in Britain and has two sections, one for fiction and one for biography, each worth £10,000. After sitting through a nail-biting discussion, in which Ian Rankin and the chairs of the two judging panels assessed the shortlisted books, I was delighted to find that my life of William Golding had won the biography prize. Golding won the fiction prize in 1979 with Darkness Visibe, and I think he'd have been tickled pink to achieve a double. A.S. Byatt won the fiction award.

Books

On 10 October I'll be at the Cheltenham Literary Festival in an event with Julian Baggini and Anthony Kenny, where we'll be talking about ideal commonwealths and perfect worlds and choosing our favourite literary and philosophical utopias. It will be at 6.00 in the Parabola Arts centre.

Book Events

On Friday 22 January at 7.00 I'll be talking about my biography of William Golding at the Savile Club, 69 Brook Street, and on Tuesday, 26 January, at 6.00 I'll be giving the William Golding Memorial Lecture at the University of Exeter, Cornwall Campus (also known as the Tremough Campus), Lecture Room A. The lecture will be based on newly discovered facts and documents that shed light on Golding's engagement to a local girl during the 1930s - an episode in his life that he fictionalized in the love affair of Sammy Mountjoy and Beatrice in Free Fall.

Book Event

On Friday 20 November I'll be at the Bridport Literary Festival and will be discussing my biography of William Golding in the Bridport Arts Centre at 11 a.m.

Book Events

On Sunday 4 October at 4.30 I shall be at the Ilkley Literary Festival, in St Margaret's Hall, talking about my biography of William Golding to Professor Gweno Williams of York St John University.

Book Event

I'll be talking to Mark Lawson about my biography of William Golding in the Conference Centre at the British Library tomorrow, Tuesday 29 September at 6.30 p.m.

Book Event

On Friday 18 September I shall be talking about my biography of William Golding in Marlborough Town Hall at 7 p.m. Golding grew up in Marlborough in the house his parents leased at 29 The Green, and his father was science master at Marlborough Grammar School.

Book Events

I shall be talking about my biography of William Golding in Salisbury at the Guildhall on Friday 4 September at 7.30. Golding taught at Bishop Wordsworth's School, Salisbury, from 1945, when he came out of the navy, until 1960, so I think there is a good chance there will be people who knew him or were taught by him in the audience. Salisbury Cathedral spire was visible from his classroom window, and inspired his novel The Spire.