Eighteen is a good time for suffering

Welcome to the country town of Stillbourne. Restless teenage resident Oliver wants to enjoy himself before going to university, beginning with his pursuit of the Town Crier's daughter.

But in this claustrophobic community - stifled by the English class system, and where everybody knows everyone's business - love, lust and rebellion are closely followed by revenge and embarrassment . . .

'The great unbreakable wild horse of the 1960s British literary stable.' Rose Tremain
'Golding's most approachable novel and a curiously personal one, that returns to the mind again and again as if the shames and idylls were one's own.' Guardian

'Neatly drawn, funny and touching . . . The snap, the tang, and the tension in Golding's prose is always a pleasure.' Harper's