Rites of Passage To the Ends of the Earth Series, Book 1

Introduced by Annie Proulx, lose yourself in an epic naval journey in this Booker Prize-winning 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 . . . 'It is the emotional veracity of life at sea that powers Golding's exceptional writing ... The fury, mystery and challenge of life on board.' 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 To The Ends of the Earth: A Sea Trilogy - Book One

Lose yourself in an epic naval journey in this Booker Prize-winning 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 . . .

To The Ends of the Earth: A Sea Trilogy - Book One

'It is the emotional veracity of life at sea that powers Golding's exceptional writing ... The fury, mystery and challenge of life on board.' 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

To The Ends of the Earth: A Sea Trilogy - Book One

Sailing to Australia in the early years of the nineteenth century, Edmund Talbot keeps a journal to amuse his godfather back in England. Full of wit and disdain, he records the mounting tensions on the ancient, sinking warship where officers, sailors, soldiers and emigrants jostle in the cramped spaces below decks. Then a single passenger, the obsequious Reverend Colley, attracts the animosity of the sailors, and in the seclusion of the fo'castle something happens to bring him into a 'hell of degradation', where shame is a force deadlier than the sea itself Honoured godfather, With those words I begin the journal I engaged myself to keep for you-no words could be more suitable! During the early 18th century, passengers on a ship to Australia include a parson whom the crew choses as a scapegoat.