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Ninny's Boat
An enterprising young slave accompanies the Angles on their fifth-century flight to Britain where he discovers his true identity.
243 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1980
About the author
Clive King
36 books26 followersDavid Clive King was born in Richmond, Surrey in 1924. 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, 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 Arctic, to India, Sri Lanka, Australia, East Indies, Malaysia and Japan, where he observed the ruins of Hiroshima 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. Several of these exotic places provided material for his nineteen children's stories, but his best-known book STIG OF THE DUMP he wrote in an educational job at Rye, East Sussex. The BBC broadcast a new television adaptation in early 2002.
Married, divorced and married again, Clive King has three children, seven grandchildren and a great-grandchild.
From 1943 to 1947 he served in the Royal Navy, voyaging to Iceland, twice to the Russian Arctic, to India, Sri Lanka, Australia, East Indies, Malaysia and Japan, where he observed the ruins of Hiroshima 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. Several of these exotic places provided material for his nineteen children's stories, but his best-known book STIG OF THE DUMP he wrote in an educational job at Rye, East Sussex. The BBC broadcast a new television adaptation in early 2002.
Married, divorced and married again, Clive King has three children, seven grandchildren and a great-grandchild.
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July 1, 2016Britain is being flooded by immigrants. They are swamping the countryside. A special border guard has been created. It's the fifth century AD...
Actually that's not even apparent at first in this 1980 children's book written by Clive King - otherwise known as the author of Stig of the Dump. Our hero is Ninny - because we with are the barbarians, not among those waiting for them alongside Mr Cavafy. Dark haired, with a weird blue tattoo of two crossed lines on his arm, Ninny is a slave among the Anglo-Saxons, captured as a child in Britain and brought back across the North Sea.
The language is simple. Ninny's perspective is that of a fairly ignorant boy which allows the author to explain concepts and terms in story in a smooth and believable way. A nice touch that the adult reader can appreciate is that Ninny has experiences and dreams that touch on a wealth of myths and folklore. Beowulf, Queen Mab, Willo the Wisp, and King Arthur among others are all evoked but without weighing down the narrative.
Questions of migration and identity are broached first by Ninny being an outsider and a slave among the Anglo-Saxons and then developed by the variety of German peoples - all mutually antagonistic. The Britain they migrate to is inhabited by Romans from Africa (& the rest of the empire presumably) as well as indigenous peoples (some of whom are still lurking around, particularly in Wales). The abiding message of the book remains is that there is room for everybody so long as we don't rock the boat. As it turns out apparently 51.9% of my fellow countrymen and women don't share this point of view. Alack.
Actually that's not even apparent at first in this 1980 children's book written by Clive King - otherwise known as the author of Stig of the Dump. Our hero is Ninny - because we with are the barbarians, not among those waiting for them alongside Mr Cavafy. Dark haired, with a weird blue tattoo of two crossed lines on his arm, Ninny is a slave among the Anglo-Saxons, captured as a child in Britain and brought back across the North Sea.
The language is simple. Ninny's perspective is that of a fairly ignorant boy which allows the author to explain concepts and terms in story in a smooth and believable way. A nice touch that the adult reader can appreciate is that Ninny has experiences and dreams that touch on a wealth of myths and folklore. Beowulf, Queen Mab, Willo the Wisp, and King Arthur among others are all evoked but without weighing down the narrative.
Questions of migration and identity are broached first by Ninny being an outsider and a slave among the Anglo-Saxons and then developed by the variety of German peoples - all mutually antagonistic. The Britain they migrate to is inhabited by Romans from Africa (& the rest of the empire presumably) as well as indigenous peoples (some of whom are still lurking around, particularly in Wales). The abiding message of the book remains is that there is room for everybody so long as we don't rock the boat. As it turns out apparently 51.9% of my fellow countrymen and women don't share this point of view. Alack.
May 7, 2021
This has been my all time favourite book since I was about 10, and I adore the nostalgia of re-reading it
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews