RETROS LORD OF THE FLIES

VAL HENNESSY

A PIN TO SEE THE PEEPSHOW

by F. Tennyson Jesse (British Library £9.99, 320 pp) Names have been changed in this terrific novel inspired by a notorious 1920s murder trial.

Teenage Julia, dreaming of escaping from her family’s crowded suburban home, impulsively marries an old bore with money and a smart flat. Big mistake. Herbert ‘exercising his marital rights’ offers nothing like the rapture described in the trashy books enjoyed by Julia. she wants passion and adventure, and embarks on a clandestine affair with a naval man.

When he’s at sea she bombards him with steamy letters, joking about doing away with Herbert and putting poison in his sherry.

eventually, one evening when she and Herbert are leaving a playhouse together, the sailor creeps up behind them and fatally bashes Herbert’s head.

at the sensational trial, Julia’s letters speed the guilty verdict. Was the double hanging a terrible miscarriage of justice? You decide.

by William Golding (Faber £8.99, 256 pp)

IT Was deservedly voted ‘one of the novels that shaped the world’, but when my mum saw the word ‘Flies’ on the dust jacket she hissed ‘Flies? Trousers? Filth!’ and made me replace it on the library shelf.

When I eventually read it, aged 14, (no ‘Filth!’, incidentally) I was stunned. Here were young english boys, stranded on a tropical island — no grown-ups, no proper food, no toilet paper — heading into depravity.

With pounding heart I saw them transformed into bullies, savages running about naked, hellbent on destruction and, worst of all, picking on the only decent, thoughtful (fat) boy, nicknaming him Piggy, smashing his specs and watching him die without a qualm.

Phew! That’s boys for you, I thought. a few girls on the island would have certainly sorted them out. It’s an unforgettable masterpiece, and I still weep for Piggy.