<P> Lord of the Flies is a 1954 novel by Nobel Prize--winning British author William Golding . The book focuses on a group of British boys stranded on an uninhabited island and their disastrous attempt to govern themselves . </P> <P> The novel has been generally well received . It was named in the Modern Library 100 Best Novels, reaching number 41 on the editor's list, and 25 on the reader's list . In 2003 it was listed at number 70 on the BBC's The Big Read poll, and in 2005 Time magazine named it as one of the 100 best English - language novels from 1923 to 2005 . </P> <P> Published in 1954, Lord of the Flies was Golding's first novel . Although it was not a great success at the time--selling fewer than three thousand copies in the United States during 1955 before going out of print--it soon went on to become a best - seller . It has been adapted to film twice in English, in 1963 by Peter Brook and 1990 by Harry Hook, and once in Filipino (1975). </P> <P> The book takes place in the midst of an unspecified war . Some of the marooned characters are ordinary students, while others arrive as a musical choir under an established leader . With the exception of Sam and Eric and the choirboys, they appear never to have encountered each other before . The book portrays their descent into savagery; left to themselves on a paradisiacal island, far from modern civilisation, the well - educated children regress to a primitive state . </P>

When was the book lord of the flies written