To the Ends of the Earth

Comprising Rites of Passage, Close Quarters and Fire Down Below, Golding's seafaring trilogy shows the Nobel Prize-winning author at the very height of his powers.

When young Edmund Talbot sets sail for a posting in the Australian colonies, he begins a journal for his influential godfather. As with most diaries, Edmund's account of the long voyage reveals as much about himself as it does about the creaking ship, its crew and his fellow passengers.

Edmund is a naïve and pompous young man, puffed up in the ways of polite society. From start he makes ill-considered remarks and judgments about those on board, from the irascible Captain Anderson to the unfortunate Reverend Colley. Nevertheless, he manages to befriend Lieutenant Charles Summers, with whom he finds agreeable companionship; Wheeler in his turn tries to guide Edmund in the ways of the nautical life, and helps him to learn 'tarpaulin', the language of the ship.

Gradually Edmund finds his feet, both literally and metaphorically; his hotheadedness continues to get him into trouble throughout the trilogy, but as the ship draws nearer to Australia - and one final disaster -  he achieves a newfound maturity borne of experience.

This salty adventure is full of nautical terminology, storms, seasickness, grog, burial at sea, love, lust and shame. It is also a tremendous evocation of the cramped and claustrophobic conditions endured by those who went to sea in the nineteenth century.