With the publication of Lord of the Files in 1954, William Golding was recognized as an important modern novelist. As an essayist he is less well known. Golding has shied away from publicity, and even the interviews he has given provide sparse biographical information. His conversations with Jack Biles have added to this limited stock of information, and the shorter pieces he wrote from 1960 to 1962, during his brief career as a book reviewer for the Spectator, provide a complementary insight into Golding the man. In these essays he unbends freely and autobiographically. The first of Golding's essays published in the United States ( "Thinking as a Hobby") appeared in the August 1961 issue of Holiday magazine. He continued to publish in this magazine until 1966. Other essays have appeared in Esquire, Venture, the Kenyon Review, and the Times Literary Supplement.

Golding's essays fall into three classes: travel pieces, humorous sketches, and philosophical...