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In 1926 he moved with his parents to Oliver's Farm, Ash, Kent, on the North Downs, alongside which was an abandoned chalk-pit . His early education was at a private infant school where one of the teachers, Miss Brodie, claimed to have taught Christopher Robin Milne, and introduced Clive to stories about Stone Age people. Thereafter he went to King's School, Rochester, he studied English and Russian at Downing College, Cambridge, and the School of Oriental and African Studies, London.
From 1943 to 1947 he served in the Royal Navy, voyaging to Iceland, twice to the Russian ArcticThe Arctic is the area around the Earth's North Pole. The Arctic includes parts of Russia, Alaska, Canada, Greenland, Lapland, and Norway (including Svalbard), as well as the Arctic Ocean. The 10°C (50°F) July isotherm is commonly used to define the borde, to IndiaThe Republic of India is a large multicultural country in South Asia, with a population of over one billion. The Indian economy is the fourth largest in the world, in terms of purchasing power parity, and is the world's second-fastest growing economy., Sri LankaThe Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka (known as Ceylon before 1972) is a tropical island nation off the southeast coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known in ancient times as Lanka Lankadweepa (meaning "Resplendent Land" in Sanskrit), Taprobane an, AustraliaAustralia is the sixth-largest country in the world (geographically), the only one to occupy an entire continent, and the largest in the region of Australasia. Australia includes the island of Tasmania, which is an Australian State. Its neighbouring count, East Indies, MalaysiaThe Federation of Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia. It consists of two geographical regions divided by the South China Sea: Peninsular Malaysia on the Malay Peninsula is bordered to the north by Thailand and to the south by Singapore; East Malaysia and JapanJapan (, Nippon/Nihon literally "the origin of the sun") is a country in East Asia situated on a chain of islands east of the Asian continent on the western edge of the Pacific Ocean. The largest of these islands are, from north to south, Hokkaido , Honsh, where he observed the ruins of HiroshimaFor the town that was formerly named Hiroshima in Hokkaido, see Kitahiroshima. Hiroshima City (; -shi) is the capital of Hiroshima Prefecture, and the largest city in the Chugoku region of western Japan. It is best known throughout the world as the first within months of its destruction.
Civilian postings as an officer of the British Council took him to Amsterdam, Belfast, Aleppo, Damascus (styled as Visiting Professor to the University), Beirut, Dhaka and Madras, and gave opportunities for independent travel between these places and England.
In 1973 he became a full-time writer following the success of his best-known book Stig of the Dump.
The BBC broadcast a new television adaptation in early 2002.
His nineteen books include: