Golding and War

Next Monday, 19 September 2011, is the centenary of William Golding's birth. Together with my colleague Adeline Johns-Putra, I am organising the centenary conference in Cornwall (Golding's native county) this weekend. If you are lucky enough to be in the Duchy with time on your hands, come along to one of the plenaries: Golding's daughter, Judy, will be speaking at 3pm on Friday 16 September, and John Carey at 11am on Sunday 18th. The venue for both talks is the Chapel Lecture Theatre in Tremough House on the University of Exeter's Cornwall Campus.

Before anyone asks what this has to do with war poetry, let me explain that Golding started his writing career as a poet (if you find his pamphlet in a second-hand shop, I will buy it from you for a tenner), and he later wrote a great deal about the Second World War. To prove the point, my own talk at the conference is titled 'Golding and War'.