The Coral Island by modern scholars and generally considered to be dated in many aspects, in 2006 it was voted one of the top twenty Scottish novels at the 15th International World Wide Web Conference. Robert Louis Stevenson's 1882 novel "Treasure Island" was in part inspired by "The Coral Island", which he admired for its "better qualities", as was J. M. Barrie's character Peter Pan; both Stevenson and Barrie had been "fervent boy readers" of the novel. Novelist G. A. Henty was also influenced by Ballantyne's audience-friendly method of didactism. William Golding's 1954 novel "Lord of the Flies" was written as a counterpoint
The Beach (novel) as "Heart of Darkness" and "Lord of the Flies", and the anonymous memoirs of an escaped Australian prisoner. Although set in Thailand, Garland wrote the book while living in the Philippines and in particular was inspired by similar geography on the island of Palawan . Novelist Nick Hornby referred to "The Beach" as "a "Lord of the Flies" for Generation X", and the "Sunday Oregonian" called it "Generation X's first great novel". "The Washington Post" wrote that it is "a furiously intelligent first novel" and "a book that moves with the kind of speed and grace many older writers can