Lord of the Flies
Brain Snacks: Tasty Tidbits of Knowledge
Something around twenty publishers rejected Lord of the Flies.
William Golding was knighted in 1988. Make that Sir William Golding.
The TV series Lost has a long list of similarities to Lord of the Flies. Check out what the people over at Lostpedia think.
Piggy's glasses could not really have been used to start a fire because he was near-sighted. Nearsighted people use concave lenses, which wouldn't have been able to focus light in the correct way to produce a spark. (source and source)