Clive King
David Clive King was born in Richmond, Surrey, in 1924, later moving to Kent where an abandoned chalk-pit near his home inspired his most celebrated work.
Educated at Cambridge and the School of Oriental and African Studies, he served in the Royal Navy during WWII, travelling extensively.
A distinguished career with the British Council took him across Europe, the Middle East, and Asia, experiences that informed his nineteen children's books.
He wrote Stig of the Dump while working in Rye, East Sussex.
The book has never gone out of print, selling over two million copies since its 1963 publication.
King died in 2018, aged 94.
