1950s novel Lord of The Flies is the ultimate study of hate and division. It has never been more relevant

William Golding's story of boys descending into violence is a 20th-Century classic. Now Adolescence writer Jack Thorne is behind a new TV version speaking to a rancorous world.

William Golding's Lord of the Flies, his classic novel about boys who turn to savage violence after a plane crash strands them on a deserted island, has had a remarkably long and varied life. It has inspired two films, a dance show by Matthew Bourne, a parody on The Simpsons and a female knockoff in the television series Yellowjackets.

Stephen King has cited it as a major influence on his entire writing career. Generations of schoolchildren have either embraced it or balked at being force-fed it as required reading. And amazingly, this 1954 novel, deeply rooted in its own era, feels especially timely today. It has been adapted into a bold, touching new series that has just landed on Netflix, written by Jack Thorne, the writer of the similarly themed megahit Adolescence, about a 13-year-old boy accused of murder.

At its core, the book explores the nature of evil – but while its basic meaning hasn't changed, says Tim Kendall, Professor of English Literature at the University of Exeter and leading Golding expert, "what changes is the urgency of that question depending on what the government or the world situation in the day happens to be".

Judy Carver, Golding's daughter and a director of his estate, tells the BBC: "I think a good book belongs to each generation successively. In fact, my father actually said in an essay about the book that he no longer believed the author had a sort of father's right over the novel. He believed it belonged to the readers, and their interpretation was valid."

Why it's a story for now

Thorne tells the BBC: "We didn't impose anything on the book. I just think there's a resonance in what Golding is writing about that works for where we are right now." The world has changed since he was a teenager in the 1990s, Thorne says. "There was a genuine optimism in the air, and there was a genuine feeling of community. The world that seems to be out[side] the window for my son right now is a world where it's easier to hate than love, where it's easier to disparage someone else rather than help them."

Television seemed the perfect vehicle for bringing the book and its timeliness to a new  audience. "The chapters of TV, the episodes of TV, can speak to a book," Thorne says. Unlike the novel, the series is structured so that each of the four episodes focuses on a different character's point of view, a strategy Thorne saw as a fresh way of illuminating Golding's work. Thorne adds backstories for the boys and tweaks some episodes, while staying true to the novel's plot and characters.

Piggy is the bullied, bespectacled boy known for his intellect, and Ralph is the natural leader, who insists that rules and order will keep the island civilised. Ralph's adversary, the power-hungry Jack, leads the other boys to anarchy and violence against each other. Simon is a visionary, a sacrificial figure who understands that the evil on the island comes from inside the boys themselves. Golding orchestrated these types with........

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