October 2020 News Round-up

As many people continue to work from home, Zoom meetings and video calls are still the norm. This gives us a window into people’s homes and there has been much discussion on social media about pandemic bookshelves. Eagle-eyed viewers noticed that distinguished primatologist, Jane Goodall, had a copy of Golding’s The Inheritors on her shelves.

The upcoming US election unsurprisingly dominated much of the news. In the Vice-Presidential debate between Kamala Harris and Mike Pence, a fly took up residence in Pence’s hair. This created a storm on social media with a number of commentators referring to Golding’s Lord of the Flies. Golding fan Stephen King sent a tweet which went viral:

In The Washington Post, Ron Charles explored books which readers thought had the most disappointing endings. Surprisingly, Lord of the Flies appeared on the list compiled by an online retailer. Lord of the Flies actually has a tremendous ending, with the arrival of the Naval Officer reminding the reader that the boys on the island are not so different from the adults. Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet was voted as the worst ending!

And finally, we published a new article to mark the 40th anniversary of Golding winning the Booker Prize for Rites of Passage.