Clive King

David Clive King is an English author best known for his children's book Stig of the Dump. He served in the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve in the last years of World War II and then worked for the British Council in a wide range of overseas postings, from which he later drew inspiration for his novels.
Clive King was born in Richmond, London, England in April 1924 and grew up in Ash, Kent. He was educated at The King's School, Rochester, Kent 1933–41 and then Downing College, Cambridge, where he obtained a B.A. in English. He served as a Sub-Lieutenant in the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve 1943–46, which took him to the Arctic, India, Sri Lanka, Australia, Malaysia and Japan, where he saw the then recent devastation of Hiroshima.
After the war, he began working as an officer of the British Council and was posted to Amsterdam as an Administrative Officer. Subsequent postings for the British Council included: Belfast as a Student Welfare Officer; Aleppo, Syria as a Lecturer; Damascus as a Visiting Professor to the University; Beirut as Lecturer and Director of Studies; Madras as an Education Officer. He also served as a Warden for East Sussex Country Council from 1955–60.