Not In Front of the Children

We're having my mother's 80th birthday dinner this evening, so I was intrigued to read the following reminiscence in today's Guardian by Judy Carver of her parents, one of whom happened to be William Golding: 

    'When my father was 75, he had a big party in London to which we were invited. I enjoyed it tremendously and felt I had been rather a success, an impression supported by a slightly mordant appraisal from my mother. When my father's 80th birthday approached in 1991, I assumed I would be included too. But I learned that my mother had decided not to invite me or my brother. Unusually, I protested. She remained adamant.

    'My father phone me and offered to "make a fuss". But I could see there was no point. It wouldn't be much fun going to a party where the hostess doesn't want you, especially when the hostess is your own mother. My mother said: "It's really a very small party."'

    So now we know what the parents were doing, while the children were on the island in Lord of the Flies. They were having a birthday party.