Ralph, Piggy and Jack – are caricatures of Ballantyne's heroes. Despite having enjoyed The Coral Island many times as a child, Golding strongly disagreed with the views that it espoused, and in contrast Lord of the Flies depicts the English boys as savages themselves, who forget more than they learn, unlike Ballantyne's boys. Golding described the relationship between the two books by saying that The Coral Island "rotted to compost" in his mind, and in the compost "a new myth put down roots". Neither is the idyllic nature of Ballantyne's coral island to be found on Stevenson's treasure island, which is unsuitable for settlement "but exists merely as a site from which to excavate treasure, a view consistent with the late-Victorian imperial mission" according to Honaker. Television adaptations The Coral Island was adapted into a children's television series in a joint venture between Thames Television and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in 1980, first shown on Australian and British television in 1983. It was also adapted into a four-part children's television drama by Zenith Productions, broadcast by ITV in 2000. References Notes Citations Bibliography External links The Coral Island at Project Gutenberg The Coral Island at Internet Archive and Google Books (scanned books original editions illustrated) 1857 British novels British adventure novels Fictional islands Scottish novels Novels about pirates British novels adapted into television shows Novels set in Oceania Castaways in fiction Novels set on uninhabited islands Novels by R. M. Ballantyne Novels about survival skills British children's novels 1850s children's books Treasure Island