David Clive King (28 April 1924 – 10 July 2018) was an English author best known for his children's book ''

Stig of the Dump ''Stig of the Dump'' is a children's novel by Clive King which was first published in the United Kingdom in 1963. It is regarded as a modern children's classic and is often read in schools. It was illustrated by Edward Ardizzone and has been ...

'' (1963). He served in the

Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve The Royal Naval Reserve (RNR) is one of the two volunteer reserve forces of the Royal Navy in the United Kingdom. Together with the Royal Marines Reserve, they form the Maritime Reserve. The present RNR was formed by merging the original ...

in the last years of the Second World War and then worked for the

British Council The British Council is a British organisation specialising in international cultural and educational opportunities. It works in over 100 countries: promoting a wider knowledge of the United Kingdom and the English language (and the Welsh lang ...

in a wide range of overseas postings from which he later drew inspiration for some of his novels. Crouch, Marcus, "King, (David) Clive" in ''Twentieth Century Children's Writers'', ed. D. L. Kirkpatrick, Macmillan, 2nd edition 1983, pp. 430–31.

Life and career

Clive King was born in Richmond, then in Surrey, on 28 April 1924 and grew up in Ash in

Kent Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...

. He was educated at the

King's School, Rochester The King's School, Rochester, is a private co-educational all through day and boarding school in Rochester, Kent. It is a cathedral school and, being part of the foundation of Rochester Cathedral. The school claims to be the second oldest c ...

from 1933 to 1941 and then at

Downing College, Cambridge Downing College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge and currently has around 950 students. Founded in 1800, it was the only college to be added to the university between 1596 and 1869, and is often described as the oldest of ...

, from 1941 to 1943, graduating with a BA in English. From 1943 to 1946 he served as a sub-lieutenant in the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve, which took him to the

Arctic The Arctic (; . ) is the polar regions of Earth, polar region of Earth that surrounds the North Pole, lying within the Arctic Circle. The Arctic region, from the IERS Reference Meridian travelling east, consists of parts of northern Norway ( ...

, India, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka (where he tried to learn Tamil but didn′t get very far)), Australia, Malaya (now

Malaysia Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia. Featuring the Tanjung Piai, southernmost point of continental Eurasia, it is a federation, federal constitutional monarchy consisting of States and federal territories of Malaysia, 13 states and thre ...

) and Japan, where he saw the then-recent devastation of

Hiroshima is the capital of Hiroshima Prefecture in Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 1,199,391. The gross domestic product (GDP) in Greater Hiroshima, Hiroshima Urban Employment Area, was US$61.3 billion as of 2010. Kazumi Matsui has b ...

. After leaving the Reserve, King began working for the

and was posted to

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...

as an administrative officer (1948–50). Subsequent postings for the British Council included

Belfast Belfast (, , , ; from ) is the capital city and principal port of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan and connected to the open sea through Belfast Lough and the North Channel (Great Britain and Ireland), North Channel ...

, as a staff welfare officer (1950–51);

Aleppo Aleppo is a city in Syria, which serves as the capital of the Aleppo Governorate, the most populous Governorates of Syria, governorate of Syria. With an estimated population of 2,098,000 residents it is Syria's largest city by urban area, and ...

, as a lecturer (1951–54);

Damascus Damascus ( , ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in the Levant region by population, largest city of Syria. It is the oldest capital in the world and, according to some, the fourth Holiest sites in Islam, holiest city in Islam. Kno ...

, as a visiting professor at the university (1954–55);

Beirut Beirut ( ; ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, just under half of Lebanon's population, which makes it the List of largest cities in the Levant region by populatio ...

, as lecturer and director of studies (1960–66); and

Madras Chennai, also known as Madras ( its official name until 1996), is the capital and largest city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost state of India. It is located on the Coromandel Coast of the Bay of Bengal. According to the 2011 Indian ce ...

, as an education officer (1971–73). He also served as a warden for East Sussex County Council from 1955 to 1960. He attended the

School of Oriental and African Studies The School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS University of London; ) is a public research university in London, England, and a member institution of the federal University of London. Founded in 1916, SOAS is located in the Bloomsbury area ...

in London from 1966 to 1967, then served as an education adviser for the East Pakistan Education Centre in

Dhaka Dhaka ( or ; , ), List of renamed places in Bangladesh, formerly known as Dacca, is the capital city, capital and list of cities and towns in Bangladesh, largest city of Bangladesh. It is one of the list of largest cities, largest and list o ...

from 1967 to 1971. Clive King started writing when he was a child. He once stated that his first story was a script for a Western film. He had articles published in both his school and college magazines before his first book, ''Hamid of Aleppo'', was published by Macmillan & Co. of New York in 1958. He wrote ''The Town that Went South'' (1959), ''

'' (1963) and ''The 22 Letters'' (1966) before deciding to become a full-time writer in 1973. He went on to write another 20 novels between 1972 and 2008, but he is probably best known for ''Stig of the Dump'', which has twice been adapted for television and continues to be taught in British schools. As a popular children's author King was invited to summer camps for members of the

Puffin Puffins are any of three species of small alcids (auks) in the bird genus ''Fratercula''. These are pelagic seabirds that feed primarily by diving in the water. They breed in large colonies on coastal cliffs or offshore islands, nesting in crev ...

Book Club Holidays (predecessor to ATE Superweeks), along with other authors such as

Ian Serraillier Ian Serraillier (24 September 1912 – 28 November 1994) was an English novelist and poet. He retold legends from England, Greece and Rome and was best known for his children's books, especially '' The Silver Sword'' (1956), a wartime adventure s ...

and

Joan Aiken Joan Delano Aiken (4 September 1924 – 4 January 2004) was an English writer specialising in supernatural fiction and children's alternative history novels. In 1999 she was awarded an MBE for her services to children's literature. For ''Th ...

. King was married twice, had three children and lived in Thurlton,

Norfolk Norfolk ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in England, located in East Anglia and officially part of the East of England region. It borders Lincolnshire and The Wash to the north-west, the North Sea to the north and eas ...

Influence

Clive King acknowledged the influence of his itinerant career on his writing: "Each of the things which I have written has been inspired by a particular place which I have visited or lived in. The settings are always as authentic as possible and they determine the action." This influence is noticeable in the settings of ''The Night The Water Came'' (relief operations on a tropical island), ''Snakes and Snakes'' (India) and ''The 22 Letters'' (the Middle East).

''Hamid of Aleppo''

'' Hamid of Aleppo'' (1958), illustrated by Giovannetti, follows the adventures of a Syrian Golden Hamster. Hamid has no idea what sort of creature he is. The camel tells him he is a desert rat; the tortoise calls him a fat cat without a tail. Hamid is busy digging new tunnels in his home in the side of a hill where he unearths many Things. When Hamid leaves his tunnel home he brings with him many of the Things he has found there. After many travels and encounters with other wayfarers, Hamid digs a tunnel which brings him to the surface in the office of the Director of a Museum, who explains to Hamid that he is a Syrian Golden Hamster and that his Things are relics of antiquity. Hamid the Syrian Golden Hamster donates his Things to the Museum and is rewarded.

''Stig of the Dump''

'' (1963), illustrated by Edward Ardizzone, follows the adventures of a boy who discovers a Stone-Age cave-dweller living at the bottom of a disused chalk pit in Kent that has been used as an unofficial rubbish dump. The concept does not explicitly involve any of the common fantasy devices such as timeslip or magic.Graham Hammond in The book has been reprinted many times and has been adapted for television twice.

''The 22 Letters''

''The 22 Letters'' (1966), illustrated by Richard Kennedy, was the 250th title published by

Puffin Books Puffin Books is a longstanding children's imprint of the British publishers Penguin Books. Since the 1960s, it has been among the largest publishers of children's books in the UK and much of the English-speaking world. The imprint now belongs to ...

. Set in the eastern

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern ...

world of the 15th century BC, the story follows the adventures of the three sons of a

Phoenicia Phoenicians were an Ancient Semitic-speaking peoples, ancient Semitic group of people who lived in the Phoenician city-states along a coastal strip in the Levant region of the eastern Mediterranean, primarily modern Lebanon and the Syria, Syrian ...

n master builder through three loosely linked stories in which they travel to the

Sinai Peninsula The Sinai Peninsula, or simply Sinai ( ; ; ; ), is a peninsula in Egypt, and the only part of the country located in Asia. It is between the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Red Sea to the south, and is a land bridge between Asia and Afri ...

, to the court of King Minos in

Crete Crete ( ; , Modern Greek, Modern: , Ancient Greek, Ancient: ) is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the List of islands by area, 88th largest island in the world and the List of islands in the Mediterranean#By area, fifth la ...

and to

Ugarit Ugarit (; , ''ủgrt'' /ʾUgarītu/) was an ancient port city in northern Syria about 10 kilometers north of modern Latakia. At its height it ruled an area roughly equivalent to the modern Latakia Governorate. It was discovered by accident in 19 ...

. They return and save their city from invasion with the help of the three inventions they have found:

celestial navigation Celestial navigation, also known as astronavigation, is the practice of position fixing using stars and other celestial bodies that enables a navigator to accurately determine their actual current physical position in space or on the surface ...

, horsemanship and

alphabet An alphabet is a standard set of letter (alphabet), letters written to represent particular sounds in a spoken language. Specifically, letters largely correspond to phonemes as the smallest sound segments that can distinguish one word from a ...

ic writing. In its time ''The 22 Letters'' was considered, at over 300 pages, to be very long for a children's book, although its scholarship and scope were admired.

Bibliography

Fiction

*''Hamid of Aleppo'', illustrated by Giovannetti. New York, Macmillan 1958 *''The Town That Went South'', illustrated by Maurice Bartlett. New York, Macmillan 1959; London, Penguin 1961 *''

'', illustrated by Edward Ardizzone. London, Penguin 1963 () *''The 22 Letters'', illustrated by Richard Kennedy. London, Hamish Hamilton 1966; New York, Coward McCann 1967; *''The Night the Water Came'', illustrated by Mark Peppé. London, Longman 1973; New York, Crowell 1979 *''Snakes and Snakes'', illustrated by Richard Kennedy. London, Kestrel 1975 *''Me and My Million''. London, Kestrel 1976; New York, Crowell 1979 *''The Inner Ring'' series, illustrated by Jacqueline Atkinson. London, Ernest Benn 1976 **''The Accident'' **''First Day Out'' **''High Jacks, Low Jacks'' **''The Secret'' *''The Devil's Cut'', illustrated by Val Biro. London, Hodder & Stoughton 1978 *''Ninny's Boat'', illustrated by Ian Newsham. London, Kestrel 1980; New York, Macmillan 1981 *''The Sound of Propellers'' 1986 *''The Seashore People'' 1987 *''A Touch of Class'' 1995

Plays

*''Poles Apart'', produced London, 1975 *''The World of Light'', produced London, 1976 *''Good Snakes, Bad Snakes'' 1977 *''Get the Message'', produced London, 1987

Other

*''The Birds from Africa'', illustrated by Diana Groves. London, Macdonald 1980 *''Bells for Christmas'', with songs by Robert Pell, Macdonald Educational 1981

References

External links

Clive King biography and bibliography
* – lists ''The 22 Letters'' as "especially enjoyable"

{{DEFAULTSORT:King, Clive 1924 births 2018 deaths People educated at King's School, Rochester Alumni of Downing College, Cambridge Alumni of SOAS University of London English children's writers English male dramatists and playwrights People from Richmond, London Royal Navy officers of World War II Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve personnel of World War II People from South Norfolk (district) People from Sevenoaks District Military personnel from the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames