The Dreams of William Golding. Sat March 17th on BBC2 TV 9.30 pm

[Guest]

Of particular interest to me, because Sir William Golding was my English Master at school and I actually have a photograph which I took of him during a lesson when we were supposed to be writing a paraphrase or something similar and he was (not supposed to be) writing his first novel; The Lord of the Flies.

Anyone who was at our school at that time would have recognised some of their classmates in some of the book's characters - even our Deputy Head Master, who like Golding had recently returned from wartime service in the Royal Navy to resume their pre-war schoolmasters' posts.

I will certainly be watching this programme and I can take this opportunity to give a few facts which may not appear relevent to the subject matter of the programme.

He was an accomplished pianist, a very good cellist and, when we needed an oboe in the school orchestra, he taught himself to play it


We had an Air Training Corps at school and I was in the ATC band, (although I was actually too young to join). When the two mariners returned to the school, they persuaded the Headmaster to abandon the ATC in favour of a Sea Cadet Corps. (Thirty miles from the nearest sea shore, but there was the River Avon to practise on). When I was called up for my National Service, I joined The Royal Artillery Band.

I wonder how many others, outside of Royalty, have worn the uniforms of all three of the armed services?

The programme might be a bit late at night for some, but presumably it will be available on the red button.

HS

[DracoM]

Coincidentally I am just reading Carey's biog of WG. That very picture is of course in the book - exactly as Hornspieler relates!

[DracoM]

Coincidentally, I am just reading the Carey biog of WG. Hornspieler's photo is in there - exactly as he describes!

But which character in LoF are you, HS??

[Segilla]

From what I recall of bandsmen in the RAF, it was a good skive and always took precedence over proper work!

[amateur51]

From what I recall of bandsmen in the RAF, it was a good skive and always took precedence over proper work!

Have a care who you're calling a skiver, Segilla - we have a former RAF Bandsman in our very midst, although he does a very good impression of being Rupert Murdoch's aide-de-camp in West Sussex these days

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

FANTASTIC post, HS!

[Nick Armstrong]

Of particular interest to me, because Sir William Golding was my English Master at school and I actually have a photograph which I took of him during a lesson

Another great anecdote, HS!

Might you consider posting that photograph here?

[Hornspieler]

A little extract from my Xmas stocking filler "Bravo Maestro"

My school music master, the late A. F. (Tony) Brown, had a talent for over-simplification.

“There are only three basic requirements to becoming an accomplished instrumentalist,”
he told me. “The right note, in the right place, in the right way!”

How simple! And how obviously true, but I soon learned that those basic criteria can only be
achieved if one also is in the right frame of mind, the right state of health and in the right
company. In order to fulfill the last condition -- and to become a professional musician -- one
has to add two more “rights”. As many a famous artist has freely admitted; his or her initial
success was achieved by being at the right place at the right time!

Before going on to recount how I managed to be in the right place at the right time, it is worth
recording my first experience of the orchestral player's repartee;

Tony Brown, was a great friend of our English master, William (later Sir William) Golding;
who was known affectionately throughout the school as `Scruff Golding', because he wore a
shaggy beard in the days when it was usual for schoolmasters to be clean shaven. `Scruff' was
an accomplished pianist, a pretty good cellist and also played the oboe to a standard which
was equal to the demands of our school orchestra.

When an orchestra tunes up it is, of course, the oboist who `gives the A, to which everyone else
tunes his instrument. At one particular rehearsal, the school orchestra was sounding even
more excruciating than usual.

“Mr. Golding. Can you give us that `A' again, please?”

Golding was a stickler for correct English usage. “I'm afraid I can't give you that one,” he
replied, “but I'll give you one like it!”

One of his many accomplishments was that he was ambidextrous.
The blackboards in our school were about six feet wide.
He would stand in the centre with his chalk in the left hand and begin to write. When he reached the middle of the board, he transferred the chalk to his right hand and finished the sentence. If you hadn't been watching him, you wouldn't know at what word the transfer was made. His writing with both hands was the same - untidy, but you couldn't spot the difference.

HS

[Chris Newman]

Hi HS,
You would not believe it but my Latin teacher did something similar only he wrote the same sentence with the left hand writing in Latin and and the right one in English....at the same time.

BWS
Chris

[Hornspieler]

Coincidentally, I am just reading the Carey biog of WG. Hornspieler's photo is in there - exactly as he describes!

But which character in LoF are you, HS??

http://www.cleveland.com/books/index.ssf/2010/06/john_careys_biography_william.html

No one to my knowledge, DracoM, but I would not be surprised if some of our fellow message boarders would describe me as "Piggy".

Might you consider posting that photograph here?

Give me clear instructions Caliban and I would be happy to oblige. (Or I could, with permission, email the picture to french frank and ask her' very politely, if she would be so kind as to insert it into this thread).

HS

[french frank]

(Or I could, with permission, email the picture to french frank and ask her' very politely, if she would be so kind as to insert it into this thread).

Ready and waiting, HS!

[Nick Armstrong]

Give me clear instructions Caliban and I would be happy to oblige. (Or I could, with permission, email the picture to french frank and ask her' very politely, if she would be so kind as to insert it into this thread).

HS

In case it's still helpful, here are the instructions I posted on a thread about that very subject: http://www.for3.org/forums/showthrea...ghlight=images



The easiest I know is this: go to this site http://imgur.com/

You have to register with an email address. Once done, you click the "From your computer" button.... find the image on your system... click on it and it will upload

Once you see the image on the imgur page, click on it and it will enlarge from the thumbnail. You will see a series of codes, bottom left will be "BBCode (message boards)" - copy that code, paste it into the box here on FOR3.

If you then click 'preview' message in the 'advanced' screen, you should see your image in place of the link.

Good luck, hope to see evidence of your success soon!

[french frank]

Here it is, then:



HS writes: The clandestine photo was taken during an English lesson and Scruff was too concerned with his writing, left handed you will notice, to be aware that I was concealing my little Agfa Karat camera behind a pile of textbooks. I don't know if it is the photo from Carey's biog (I did give our old boys association a copy a few years back) but this is definitely the picture which I took. (and developed and printed myself)

[Nick Armstrong]

Excellent!!!!

Funny to see the waste-paper basket - a real one! - perfectly positioned!

Many thanks HS (and FF!)

[french frank]

It is good, isn't it? And the view out through the window makes a perfect backdrop. Congrats to the teenage (?) photographer.