The Spire
Introduced by Benjamin Myers
Published on 7. October 2021
Book
Paperback/Softback
272 pages
978-0-571-36233-2 (ISBN)
Description
Succumb to a churchman's apocalyptic vision in this prophetic tale by the radical Nobel Laureate and author of Lord of the Flies, introduced by Benjamin Myers (narrated by Benedict Cumberbatch as an audiobook).
There were three sorts of people. Those who ran, those who stayed, and those who were built in.
Dean Jocelin has a vision: that God has chosen him to erect a great spire. His master builder fearfully advises against it, for the old cathedral was miraculously built without foundations. But Jocelin is obsessed with fashioning his prayer in stone. As his halo of hair grows wilder and his dark angel darker, the spire rises octagon upon octagon, pinnacle by pinnacle, watched over by the gargoyles - until the stone pillars shriek, the earth beneath creeps, and the spire's shadow falls like an axe on the medieval world below ...
'Astounding ... So recklessly beautiful, so sad and so strange ... Holds such a place in my soul that it's more or less a sacred text.' Sarah Perry
'A kind of miracle ... Genius.' Guardian
'A visionary ... Golding at his best.' Benjamin Myers
'Quite simply, a marvel.' NYRB
'A superb tragedy ... A classic.' Rebecca West
'A master fabulist .. An iconoclast.' John Fowles
There were three sorts of people. Those who ran, those who stayed, and those who were built in.
Dean Jocelin has a vision: that God has chosen him to erect a great spire. His master builder fearfully advises against it, for the old cathedral was miraculously built without foundations. But Jocelin is obsessed with fashioning his prayer in stone. As his halo of hair grows wilder and his dark angel darker, the spire rises octagon upon octagon, pinnacle by pinnacle, watched over by the gargoyles - until the stone pillars shriek, the earth beneath creeps, and the spire's shadow falls like an axe on the medieval world below ...
'Astounding ... So recklessly beautiful, so sad and so strange ... Holds such a place in my soul that it's more or less a sacred text.' Sarah Perry
'A kind of miracle ... Genius.' Guardian
'A visionary ... Golding at his best.' Benjamin Myers
'Quite simply, a marvel.' NYRB
'A superb tragedy ... A classic.' Rebecca West
'A master fabulist .. An iconoclast.' John Fowles
More details
Edition
Main
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Dimensions
Height: 196 mm
Width: 125 mm
Thickness: 18 mm
Weight
224 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-571-36233-2 (9780571362332)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Previous edition
Persons
William Golding (1911 - 1993) was born in Cornwall and educated at Marlborough Grammar School and Brasenose College, Oxford. Before becoming a writer, he was an actor, small-boat sailor, musician and schoolteacher. In 1940 he joined the Royal Navy and took part in the D-Day operation and liberation of Holland. Lord of the Flies, his first novel, was rejected by several publishers but rescued from the 'reject pile' at Faber and published in 1954. It became a modern classic selling millions of copies, translated into 44 languages and made into a film by Peter Brook in 1963. Golding wrote eleven other novels, a play and two essay collections. He won the Booker Prize for Rites of Passage in 1980 and the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1983. He was knighted in 1988 and died in 1993. www.william-golding.co.uk
Benjamin Myers was born in Durham in 1976. He is a journalist, poet, and award-winning author of numerous acclaimed novels, including The Gallows Pole (2017) - which won a Roger Deakin Award and the Walter Scott Prize for historical fiction - and The Offing (2019), which was a bestseller and BBC Radio 4 'Book at Bedtime'. His most recent book is his debut story collection, Male Tears. He lives in the Upper Calder Valley, West Yorkshire.
Benjamin Myers was born in Durham in 1976. He is a journalist, poet, and award-winning author of numerous acclaimed novels, including The Gallows Pole (2017) - which won a Roger Deakin Award and the Walter Scott Prize for historical fiction - and The Offing (2019), which was a bestseller and BBC Radio 4 'Book at Bedtime'. His most recent book is his debut story collection, Male Tears. He lives in the Upper Calder Valley, West Yorkshire.