Comments by David Chamberlin OW from a tape-recorded interview given on 28th April 1988 to members of Form 4O about his memories of William Golding.
William Golding was good at talking and inspiring us. He tended to talk to 11 year olds as if they were much older. It was sometimes over our heads and we wished later to have the chance to hear again when we could understand more but it was flattering. He was not a good syllabus teacher; he was magnificently scatter-brained and lived for the moment. In class he would show his interest in religion and morality - even then not very popular subjects to raise - by firing questions at us like "How many of you say prayers at night?" - and "Why not?" if we said we didn't. He never pushed knowledge into us but wanted to know what we thought.
His nickname of 'Scruff' came from his massive beard and his hair which was everywhere. "Einstein in the last week of his life" as someone said. But this pleasant looking mess was quite different every Wednesday in term time when he arrived looking immaculate on Sea Cadet days as he was i/c of the OTC. His uniform was neatly pressed and his hair was combed for what looked like the first time that week. He would also appear like this during the social meetings between parents and teachers in the hall. He was nervous of outsiders and so would appear in his smart uniform, like royalty entering a room, slowly march up the body of the hall, and if no-one spoke to him he would go out of the side door - and then repeat the performance. I was fascinated by this and counted it fourteen times in one hour!
We realised when Lord of the Flies was published that those of us who had been in his class at the time he was writing it may well have been included in one way or another but we realised when we read the book that there are no real portraits though as he said "you might recognise bits of yourself'. We were sure of some qualities of a boy which may be seen in Ralph. He was tall, good leadership material outwardly but with few ideas - which he had to take from others. Piggy was perhaps based on someone else who was excused games for medical reasons and the butt of everyone's jokes but who took everything that was thrown at him. Then there were identical twins whom absolutely no-one could tell apart and surely they had much in common with Sam'n'Eric. I feel that some features of Simon were common to me - I was something of a loner and also then suffered from epileptic fits. I can't say that I'm Simon's character though.
Before this novel was published we did get to see some of William Golding's work. Sometimes an English lesson would start with manuscript pages distributed for us to count the words on each page. As far as one could gather from extracts they were from adventure stories, a sort of cross between Alistair Maclean and Rudyard Kipling -nothing like his later published fiction. We didn't discuss the work - only the problems of writing - and he was never keen to talk about his books.
In the Sixth Form I was his first ever student for some Greek lessons and again found him good at discussion. He responded to interest shown and in his reports often showed a whimsical turn of phrase. People often found him rather stiff and formal but in chance encounters he could be more friendly.
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