Tony Brown and William Golding

I came across by chance the biography of William Golding by John Carey, recently published by Faber and Faber. I rarely read literary biographies, let alone pay £25 for them, but this one was different. It was in part the biography of Tony Brown.

I worked with Tony from 1974-1977 and he welcomed me to his house just before he died from cancer. I was a teacher in a Salisbury school, where he was a part-time teacher of music. He drove an ancient Ford Popular, which looked antique even 40 years ago. We chatted in school, though what wisdom Tony received from so callow a youth I do not know. What I took from him I understand when reading this book - we were religious atheists together, socially aware communitarians before Blair made this popular. He lived in a lovely thatched cottage, near Salisbury, Wiltshire in a Bowerchalk garden, with bees. I was a gardener then, and have increasingly found this an important relaxation. I was no musician though. Tony's four children all played for famous orchestras, Iona Brown becoming a well-known conductor with St Martin in the Fields.

Tony spoke of his chess games with Golding, and his increasing withdrawal from the world and from writing. My last journey to Bowerchalk was to deliver a get well message and flowers from the school staff, but was detained for a while with conversation. After Tony died, much too soon, Golding wrote a very moving obituary for the Salisbury Times. And he began to write again.

One last thing. My neighbour but three now was a twin in the class Golding taught at Bishop Wordsworth, Salisbury as Lord of the Flies was being written, which famously includes twin boy characters. He thinks that all the boy characters in the story were recognizable as classmates. The twins later appeared as extras in the film of the book.

Sometimes, in life, our lives touch someone who makes a significant impact. We hope also that we might have an impact on others starting out on the journey we are finishing. Thanks, Tony for those chats long ago.