The Children of Lovers: A memoir of William Golding by his daughter

by Judy Golding

'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? This memoir recalls the author's growing up with a brilliant, loving, sometimes difficult parent

Genres: Nonfiction, Biography Memoir, Biography

251 pages, Hardcover

First published April 7, 2011

About the author

Daughter of William Golding.

Judy Golding was born in Marlborough, Wiltshire, in 1945 and grew up near Salisbury, where her parents worked as teachers. She read English at the University of Sussex and St Anne's College, Oxford, and in 1971 she married an American studying politics at Balliol. Subsequently, she worked as a copy editor for Oxford University Press and Jonathan Cape. She and her husband have three sons and one grandson and live in Bristol.

[source]

Reviews

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Judy Golding writes beautifully and from the heart, and there are few subjects she could better lend this talent to than her late father - though 'The Children Of Lovers' paints a welcomely rich portrait of the rest of her family, too, particularly Judy herself (despite her humbly attempting to play her own story down). You feel like you are getting to know the Goldings throughout, and each difficulty and bereavement they experience hits you, too. As the book meanders through William Golding's life and soul, the sense of huge, inevitable loss approaching grows more and more palpable, and indeed I cried at the end, though I knew both what it would be and the details of it already.

In The Guardian's review snippet at the start of the book, Judy is quoted as saying 'one of the attractions for me in writing a memoir has been the tantalising prospect of bringing my father to life again.' The reviewer says simply 'the prospect is fulfilled', and I couldn't agree more. Judy Golding shows, with tenderness and flair, that a tale thought of as well-trodden is her own, and one deeper and more alive than than any casual knowledge could imagine. A richly important addition to the volume of work about William Golding, and so much more besides.

[Jane · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautifully written memoir about William Golding and family, by his daughter Judy. I don’t know if I have ever read an account so perceptive about the nuance and contradiction within the family drama of father, mother, son, and daughter. The love was there, no grotesque neglect or apocalyptic dysfunction, which goes to show that even « normal » families provide enough material to write a book about. In this case, the family wasn’t quite normal in that father was a dedicated and eventually famous and wealthy writer. Judy and her brother were « children of lovers » and their struggles to matter, especially to themselves, in light of the parental self-sufficiency, is meticulously detailed. The saddest part of the book for me is the apparent fact that Judy Golding has not written another book, which she is well equipped to do and which I would eagerly read.

[Smiley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Around early 1970’s in every bookshop I visited in Bangkok, I came across a seemingly weird novel entitled, “Lord of the Flies” by William Golding whose reputation was nearly unknown to me then. Published in paperback by Faber and Faber with its unique drawing of a pig’s head on the front cover, the horrible image still kept haunting me for a while, therefore, I decided to buy a copy to read and could finished reading it intermittently. I understood the novel more when later I watched the film on television and I learned the author’s novel had been acclaimed worldwide for its unique theme depicting human survival versus savage instinct as revealed by a group of English schoolboys who, for some obscure reasons, were marooned on a desert island in an unspecified ocean. I knew he wrote some novels like “The Inheritors,” “The Spire,” “Rites of Passage,” etc. but I didn't have any motive to read even one more. Then, in 1983, I was delighted because the Oslo Committee awarded him the Nobel Prize in Literature.
…

[Jennifer Lawler · Rating 4 out of 5]

Imagine what it must be like to grow up and realise that your father is the man behind cult classic Lord of the Flies. Such was the reality for Judy, William Golding's daughter.
Her book, which was published to coincide with the centenary of Nobel Prize-winner William Golding's birth, is an engaging read. Judy's parents were teachers, and it's clear they passed their love of the written word onto their daughter.
Not content with working behind the scenes as a copyeditor, Golding has penned a touching tribute to her family.

[Jan Lynch · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having taught Lord of the Flies a number of times, I wanted to learn more about William Golding and this book in some measure satisfied my curiosity. Judy Golding sets out to explore the impact of family on children, specifically, the impact of her own childhood influences on her, the strongest being her father and her paternal grandfather. These two men shaped her and she describes many vivid memories and stories. Against these two strong men, their wives seem shadowed. Clever and quick witted, Golding, her mother, and father enjoyed quick repartee from which her brother was excluded. He lacked affinity for words, a sad condition for the son of a wordsmith. (I would have been interested in life from his perspective, as it seems that he might have felt like an outsider in his word-driven family and I wonder how that shaped his identity. Funny, how articulate people's perspectives move forward.) This book was interesting and informative, though I speculate that Golding perhaps might not have had adequate distance required for dispassionate analysis of her own memories. (It might be argued that no one does, so this is observation, not criticism.) I would recommend this memoir for anyone interested in William Golding or in family dynamics generally.

[Josa Young · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sad, fascinating and revealing, this is a daughter's account of William Golding. She does not hold back on the less attractive aspects of her father's character, but there is so much here that is also about love. Better to be the child of someone who actively pursues a fascinating life path, even though there is wreckage (literally in this case - the book opens with the wreck of Golding's boat) than to live with someone who does nothing to inspire. Read this in conjunction with John Carey's biography for a rounded picture of the man who wrote a great deal more than Lord of the Flies. For me, The Spire and Pincher Martin are equal if not superior. A compelling character study.

[Mandy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Glad he wasn't my father....