Stig of the Dump - Tapa dura

Barney's been told that if you go too near to the edge of the chalk-pit the ground would give way but, nevertheless, one boring grey day he goes along to see for himself. Next thing he knows he is at the bottom of the chalk rubbish-pit in a kind of cave unable to move his legs because somebody is sitting on them. And that's when Barney meets Stig. Nobody believes Barney when he says he has discovered a boy living wild in the dump, but for Barney Stig is totally real and together them embark on a series of wonderful adventures.

Clive King was born in Richmond, Surrey in 1924. When he was a baby his family moved to a village called Ash, near Sevenoaks in Kent, which is the setting for Stig of the Dump. He went to local schools, then King's School, Rochester and Downing College, Cambridge. During the war he served in the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve and later joined the British Council. He now lives in a cottage in Norfolk, and has three children and several grandchildren.