William Golding's The Spire - in pictures

The first edition of the Spire from 1964, playing with ideas of height and light Photograph: pr

In 1990, it was the scaffolding that caught the designer's fancy Photograph: pr

This 1997 paperback dressed Jocelin in his self-made dunce's cap Photograph: pr

Neil Gower's design. He says: "I wanted to convey a sense of period and the frailty of the structure. Fortunately, the spindly and uncertain linework of drawings of the time allowed me to convey both very neatly. The three figures enclosed in the 'courtyard' of the plan represent Jocelin, Mason and Goody and thereby the three forces of faith, practicality and sexual attraction that eddy through the narrative. Photograph: pr

Lieutenant Golding RNVR, senior officer of the Bishop Wordsworth's School Sea Cadets. Courtesy of Salisbury newspapers Photograph: pr

Golding on foredeck of the Wild Rose, c.1957. Courtesy of John Milne Photograph: pr

Golding at the teacher's desk in a classroom in Bishop Wordsworth School, c. 1960. Courtesy of the Golding Family Archive Photograph: pr

Golding at the 1980 Booker dinner when Rites of Passage won the prize. Courtesy of the Golding Family Archive Photograph: pr

Melvyn Bragg and William Golding on the South Bank Show, 1993 Photograph: ITV / Rex Features