Which Booker-winning William Golding novel begins the To the Ends of the Earth trilogy?

Rites of Passage is the Booker-winning William Golding novel that begins the To the Ends of the Earth trilogy. Published in 1980, it recounts a six-month sea voyage to Australia aboard a converted man-of-war carrying British migrants.

The story is presented largely through the journal of Edmund Talbot, a young aristocrat travelling to a colonial appointment. The ship becomes a tightly enclosed model of early nineteenth-century society, with class, rank and privilege shaping every relationship. Golding examines how supposedly civilised behaviour can deteriorate under pressure and isolation.

The trilogy continues with Close Quarters, published in 1987, and Fire Down Below, published in 1989. Darkness Visible, The Spire and Pincher Martin are also Golding novels, but none starts this nautical sequence. Rites of Passage won the Booker in the same year it appeared.