Bishop Wordsworth's School

Bishop Wordsworth's School is identified in William Golding's biography as the Salisbury school to which he returned after the Second World War. Its documented significance here is biographical: Golding was working there when his first novel, Lord of the Flies, appeared in 1954.

Golding's Return to the School

After wartime service in the Royal Navy, Golding returned to Bishop Wordsworth's School in Salisbury. He had worked in several occupations before the war, and the account places his return to schoolmastering within his postwar resumption of civilian life.

Connection to Lord of the Flies

Golding was at the school when Lord of the Flies was published in 1954. The school therefore marks the setting of an important point in his early writing career: his first novel reached publication while he was back at work as a schoolmaster. The evidence establishes this biographical connection, but does not describe the school's role in the novel's composition or its influence on the book.