'They defile the church'.
'At least they don't destroy it'.
‘There were three sorts of people. Those who ran, those who stayed, and those who were built in’.
Set in medieval England, The Spire tells the story of one man’s vision – the construction of an enormous spire onto a cathedral without foundations. Believing himself to be chosen by God, Jocelin, Dean of the Cathedral, insists that the spire must rise higher and higher, despite the singing pillars and the creeping ground.
Told with an inventive narration that reflects Jocelin’s ever-increasing madness, The Spire is an astonishing portrait of obsession, betrayal, and arrogance. Jocelin’s vision produces terrible consequences for those around him; the human ‘cost’ of one man’s folly.
The novel has been recorded by Benedict Cumberbatch as an audiobook.
‘Quite simply, a marvel’. – Frank Kermode
Benedict Cumberbatch provides the narration for the first ever unabridged audiobook of The Spire. Cumberbatch is exceptional in portraying Dean Jocelin’s descent into madness, and brings […]
Pincher Martin In Pincher Martin, Christopher Martin has been shipwrecked and is surviving on a rock, in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. His time on […]
Golding’s The Spire features in an episode of the wonderful Ninety Nine Novels podcast from the International Anthony Burgess Foundation. In 1984, Burgess published a list of […]
‘It is a testimony to the irresistible power of the imagination'.
John Mullan