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 R ...

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 lan ...

in a wide range of overseas postings, from which he later drew inspiration for 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, Surrey England on 28 April 1924 and grew up in

Ash Ash or ashes are the solid remnants of fires. Specifically, ''ash'' refers to all non-aqueous, non- gaseous residues that remain after something burns. In analytical chemistry, to analyse the mineral and metal content of chemical samples, ash ...

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

. He was educated at the

King's School, Rochester The King's School, Rochester, is an English independent school in Rochester, Kent. It is a cathedral school and, being part of the foundation of Rochester Cathedral, the Dean of Rochester serves as chair of the school's governing body. The sch ...

, Kent 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 650 students. Founded in 1800, it was the only college to be added to Cambridge University between 1596 and 1869, and is often described as the olde ...

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 ( or ) is a polar regions of Earth, polar region located at the northernmost part of Earth. The Arctic consists of the Arctic Ocean, adjacent seas, and parts of Canada (Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut), Danish Realm (Greenla ...

, India, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), Australia, Malaya 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 h ...

. After leaving the Reserve, King began working as an officer of the

and was posted to

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...

as an Administrative Officer (1948–50). Subsequent postings for the British Council included

Belfast Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdo ...

, as a Staff Welfare Officer (1950–51);

Aleppo )), is an adjective which means "white-colored mixed with black". , motto = , image_map = , mapsize = , map_caption = , image_map1 = ...

, Syria, as a Lecturer (1951–54);

Damascus )), is an adjective which means "spacious". , motto = , image_flag = Flag of Damascus.svg , image_seal = Emblem of Damascus.svg , seal_type = Seal , map_caption = , ...

, as a Visiting Professor at the University (1954–55);

Beirut Beirut, french: Beyrouth is the capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, which makes it the third-largest city in the Levant region. The city is situated on a peninsula at the midpoint o ...

, as Lecturer and Director of Studies (1960–66); and

Madras Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...

, 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 SOAS University of London (; the School of Oriental and African Studies) 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 ar ...

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

Dhaka Dhaka ( or ; bn, ঢাকা, Ḍhākā, ), formerly known as Dacca, is the capital and largest city of Bangladesh, as well as the world's largest Bengali-speaking city. It is the eighth largest and sixth most densely populated city ...

from 1967 to 1971. Clive King started writing as 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. King went on to write twenty further 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 Children's Literature 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 Active Training and Education (a.k.a. ATE Superweeks) is a not-for-profit, educational charity which provides residential holidays to children of a school age within the United Kingdom. These holidays are called Superweeks. ATE seeks to contribu ...

), along with other popular children's 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 ''The ...

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

Thurlton Thurlton is a small village in South Norfolk, located 14 miles (22 km) south-east of the city of Norwich, and 9 miles (15 km) west of the Suffolk coastal town of Lowestoft. The villages name means 'Thorferth's farm/settlement'. Thu ...

Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...

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." These influences are noticeable in the settings for ''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 Hamid refers to two different but related Arabic given names, both of which come from the Arabic triconsonantal root of Ḥ-M-D (ِِح-م-د): # (Arabic: حَامِد ''ḥāmid'') also spelled Haamed, Hamid or Hamed, and in Turkish Hamit; it ...

'' (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 Edward Jeffrey Irving Ardizzone, (16 October 1900 – 8 November 1979), who sometimes signed his work "DIZ", was an English painter, print-maker and war artist, and the author and illustrator of books, many of them for children. For ''Tim All ...

, 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 t ...

. 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 north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the e ...

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

Phoenicia Phoenicia () was an ancient thalassocratic civilization originating in the Levant region of the eastern Mediterranean, primarily located in modern Lebanon. The territory of the Phoenician city-states extended and shrank throughout their histor ...

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

Sinai Sinai commonly refers to: * Sinai Peninsula, Egypt * Mount Sinai, a mountain in the Sinai Peninsula, Egypt * Biblical Mount Sinai, the site in the Bible where Moses received the Law of God Sinai may also refer to: * Sinai, South Dakota, a place ...

), to the court of King Minos (

Crete Crete ( el, Κρήτη, translit=, Modern: , Ancient: ) is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the 88th largest island in the world and the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, Sardinia, Cyprus, and ...

) and to

Ugarit ) , image =Ugarit Corbel.jpg , image_size=300 , alt = , caption = Entrance to the Royal Palace of Ugarit , map_type = Near East#Syria , map_alt = , map_size = 300 , relief=yes , location = Latakia Governorate, Syria , region = F ...

. They return and save their city from invasion with the help of the three inventions they find or discover:

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 of ...

, horsemanship and

alphabet An alphabet is a standardized set of basic written graphemes (called letters) that represent the phonemes of certain spoken languages. Not all writing systems represent language in this way; in a syllabary, each character represents a syll ...

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

. 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 Balint Stephen Biro (Budapest, October 6, 1921 – July 4, 2014) was a children's author, artist and illustrator. He received his education in Budapest and London. His studio was located in Amersham in Buckinghamshire. Writing From an interview ...

. London, Hodder & Stoughton 1978 *''Ninny's Boat'', illustrated by Ian Newsham. London, Kestrel 1980; New York, Macmillan 1981 *''The Sound of Propellors'' 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