Close Quarters In a wilderness of heat, stillness and sea mists, a ball is held on a ship becalmed halfway to Australia. In this surreal, fete-like atmosphere the passengers dance and flirt, while beneath them thickets of weed like green hair spread over the hull. This title comes with an introduction by Ronald Blythe. This is the second volume of William Goldings Sea Trilogy. In a wilderness of heat, stillness and sea mists, a ball is held on a ship becalmed halfway to Australia. In this surreal, fete-like atmosphere the passengers dance and flirt, while beneath them thickets of weed like green hair spread over the hull. The sequel to Rites of Passage, Close Quarters, the second volume in Goldings acclaimed sea trilogy, is imbued with his extraordinary sense of menace. Half-mad with fear, with drink, with love and opium, everyone on this leaky, unsound hulk is going to pieces. And in a nightmarish climax the very planks seem to twist themselves alive as the ship begins to come apart at the seams. "It tells an utterly absorbing tale, in language of immense force and subtlety". (Financial Times). "No living writer has represented the fragility of mans experience so marvellously as Golding". (AS Byatt). "A stunning piece of writing, as exciting as any thriller". (Sunday Times). About the Author: William Golding William Golding was born in Cornwall in 1911. Before he became a schoolmaster he was an actor, a lecturer, a small-boat sailor and a musician. His first novel, Lord of the Flies, was published in 1954 and was filmed by Peter Brook in 1963. He won the Booker Prize for his novel Rites of Passage in 1980, and was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1983. He was knighted in 1988. He died at his home in the summer of 1993.