1952- started writing “Strangers from Within”
1953- tried to find a publisher, but kept getting rejected
1954- it was finally published by Faber and Faber
Charles Monteith grabbed it out of the rejected pile and salvaged it, claiming to see potential
a lot of changes and rewrites were made
title was changed from "Strangers from Within" to "Lord of the Flies"
As Viewed by his Daughter
“In many ways he was a very warm person, and tremendously funny. What’s strange is that no one believes that-- they think he was all doom and gloom.”
- he often had a "feeling of self-contempt which came from very far back. Sometimes it was dealt with funnily, with self-deprecating jokes, but sometimes it was a much darker business which he couldn't live with. I know he referred to himself as a monster. Very occasionally I remember him behaving quite badly, being unkind, but that was very unusual and was usually when he had a lot to drink. He was in spurts a heavy drinker. Often he was happy not drinking at all. It was one thing or the other."
she wrote a memoir about her childhood and how she didn’t get enough from her parents and how they were too wrapped up in each other
