"According to several sources, William Golding got the idea of Lord of the Flies from the children’s novel, The Coral Island: A Tale of the Pacific Ocean (1957) by Scottish writer RM Ballantye.

The Coral Island was one of the first examples of fiction for children to feature children exclusively as heroes. Three boys are marooned on an island in the South Pacific, the survivors of a shipwreck. One of the boys, Ralph, is the narrator, reflecting on his childhood adventure.

The Coral Island was enormously successful. Today, there are themes of imperialism and colonisation that are questioned and considered outdated but it was voted one of the top Scottish novels in 2006 at the 15th International World Wide Web Conference."