'You don't know about my life. You aren't going to either'.
Wilfred Barclay, a curmudgeonly, alcoholic writer of a bestseller is pursued by up-and-coming academic, and would-be-biographer of Barclay, Rick Tucker. Barclay, faced with a failing marriage and obsessed by middle-aged lust, tries to escape Tucker’s attentions by fleeing to Europe. Tucker follows him and the two become engaged in a game of cat and mouse, changing roles and the worlds around them. A satiric tale about the relationship between a biographer and his reluctant subject is a work of great comedy, with an unexpected climax.
The Paper Men: biographer vs novelist. Pictured is Golding's desk.
Inspiration for the novel came from reading Baker’s biography of Hemingway. Golding imagined ‘the idea of a writer watching his biographer come apart at the seams’ and in […]
The garden in The Paper Men was inspired by Golding’s garden at his house Ebble Thatch, in Bowerchalke, Salisbury. Rick Tucker appears at the end of the […]
Faber Members is hosting an online In Focus event celebrating the work and legacy of William Golding! The event will feature the Booker Prize-winning author […]
'The Paper Men opens with broad comedy'.
Andrew Martin