Rites of Passage

Introduced by Annie Proulx, lose yourself in an epic naval journey in this Booker Prize-winning historical novel: the first in the acclaimed Sea Trilogy by the author of Lord of the Flies.

'I grow a little crazy, I think, like all men at sea who live too close to each other and too close thereby to all that is monstrous under the sun and moon . . .'

Edmund Talbot is sailing to Australia in the early nineteenth century. In his journal, he records mounting tensions aboard the ancient, stinking warship, as officers, sailors, soldiers and emigrants jostle in the cramped darkness below decks. But when something happens to Reverend Colley that brings him into a 'hell of self-degradation', it seems that shame is a force deadlier than the sea itself...

About the Author

William Golding, author of Lord of the Flies, is widely acknowledged as one of the most influential writers of modern times.

Lord of the Flies, his first novel, has been read by millions, translated into more than forty-five languages, and adapted for screen and stage drama. He drew on his own experience as a teacher and his service in the Second World War, where – as he says – he saw 'what one man could do to another'. In the novel a group of schoolboys emerge from a plane crash on an idyllic tropical island. There are no adults, and they must survive on their own. The ensuing events continue to grip new readers every day, and the story has entered popular cultures all over the world.

William Golding then wrote a series of remarkable novels on such wide-ranging subjects as the last days of the Neanderthals (The Inheritors), the life-and-death struggles of an anti-hero (Pincher Martin), and the moral cost of making a work of art (The Spire). His settings are as diverse as post-war London (Darkness Visible) and ancient Greece (The Double Tongue). In his sea trilogy, To the Ends of the Earth, he takes the reader on an early nineteenth-century voyage to Australia, displaying a flair for adventure and comedy, as well as offering a profound analysis of class and sexuality. Rites of Passage, the first novel of the sea trilogy, won the Booker Prize in 1980.

Praise for Rites of Passage

'It is the emotional veracity of life at sea that powers Golding's exceptional writing … The fury, mystery and challenge.'
– Kate Mosse

'Golding writes the past as present [with] uncanny skill and tremendous intuition.'
– Ben Okri

'A master at the full stretch of his age and wisdom – necessary, provoking, urgent, rich, complex and rare.'
– The Times

'Golding's best and most accessible story since Lord of the Flies.'
– Melvyn Bragg

'An extraordinary novel.'
– Observer

'A truly noble achievement.'
– Patrick O'Brien