Clive King, the author of the beloved children's classic Stig of the Dump, has died at the age of 94. His 1963 story about a stone-age hunter living in a chalk pit in Kent has sold more than two million copies worldwide and has never been out of print.
King wrote more than 20 books over a five-decade career, including Hamid of Aleppo, but it was Stig of the Dump that captured the imagination of generations. The book was adapted for television in 1981 and 2002.
Tributes have been paid by authors including Michael Rosen, who said King created an encounter that became “iconic”, and Frank Cottrell Boyce, who praised the “crisp narrative” and “big emotion” of the story. Francesca Dow, head of Penguin Random House Children’s Books, recalled reading the book as a child and “longing for a special secret Stig and dump of my own”.
Born in Richmond in 1924, King grew up on the North Downs near Sevenoaks, Kent. He studied English at Cambridge, served in the navy during the Second World War, and later worked for the British Council. The inspiration for Stig of the Dump came from his own childhood explorations of a dump near his parents' home and watching his son do the same.
The manuscript was rejected by 12 publishers before being accepted by Kaye Webb at Puffin in 1963. Its success allowed King to become a full-time writer at age 50. He told the Guardian in 2013: “I wish I’d spent more time writing than earning my daily bread. I’m one of the lucky ones.”
