Oliver is eighteen and wants to enjoy himself before going to university. But this is the 1920s and he lives in Stilbourne, a small English country town where everyone knows what everyone else is getting up to, and where love, lust and rebellion are closely followed by revenge and embarrassment. Written with great perception and subtlety, The Pyramid is William Golding's funniest and most light-hearted novel, probing the painful awkwardness of the late teens, the tragedy and farce of life in a small community and the consoling power of music. 'Golding depicts with subtle skill all the pains of growing up and growing old. He treats us to some superb comic episodes.' Daily Telegraph '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 Magazine