Clive King

Clive King was born in Richmond, Surrey, in 1924. He served in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve. His service as a sailor and his work as a language teacher took him all over the world. Clive King lives with his family in Norfolk and is a full-time writer.

PLACE AND DATE OF BIRTH:
Richmond, Surrey; 28 April 1924

FAVOURITE BOOK:
Oxford Dictionary (4,116 pages!)

MOST TREASURED POSSESSION:
Stig of the Dump paperback from 1963 price 15 pence (3 shillings)

FAVOURITE SONG:
'Song of the Volga Boatmen'

FAVOURITE FILM:
Anything with Charlie Chaplin

When did you start writing?
1930 Story for a western film (not published)
1938 Articles for school magazine printed!
1942 Story for college magazine printed!
1958 'Hamid of Aleppo', story about the ancestor of all Syrian Golden Hamsters, published by The Macmillan Co., New York, illustrated by Giovannetti.

Where do you get your ideas?
From places I have lived in: Ash, Kent; Rochester, Kent; Rye, Sussex; Aleppo, Syria; Beirut, Lebanon; Dhaka, Bangladesh; Madras, India; Camden Town, London; Great Yarmouth, Norfolk. Each of these places has inspired at least one book.

Can you give your top three tips to becoming a successful author?
1. Keep writing, even if it's only a diary of things happening to you or things you notice.
2. Grab any opportunity to appear in print (or, I suppose, on screen).
3. Be kind to editors. They are doing their best!

Favourite memory?
My twenty-first birthday in the Arctic Circle, a week before the end of the Second World War.

Favourite place in the world and why?
At sea. Away from things.

What are your hobbies?
Rough carpentry and cooking.

If you hadn't been a writer, what do you think you would have been?
A boring professor.