LORD OF THE FLIES

a novel (1954) by William Golding . It tells the story of a group of boys left on an island after a plane crash. At first they attempt to live together in a peaceful way but later become cruel to each other and worship an invented god, the ‘Lord of the Flies’ (a pig’s head covered in flies). In writing the book Golding used the names of some of the characters of an earlier, very different children’s story, The Coral Island (1858) by R M Ballantyne.