Clive

Welcome to the Adventures of Clive the Tortoise. When my sisters and I were small I used to draw silly little single scene cartoons for them starring Clive, who is a tortoise, and the adventures he got up to.

Clive the Tortoise.

Clive the Tortoise and his place in the world.

Having parents who both worked as teachers had its draw-backs. For months on end the contact I got with my parents was either side of a massive pile of reports and marking. Homework was first on list of priorities, there were no sick days and if I got into trouble my parents found out whether I told them or not. However, Mum would sometimes bring home prototype cakes from cookery club, Dad knew about stars and stuff and we used to get long abroad holidays. I say abroad, this is not Costa del Sol or Florida. We used to go to places like Normandy or the Black Forest or Bitch, at least that was what I thought it was called. It was actually Bitche and was a cute little Eastern French town with a fortress. Very beautiful places, and now I completely get why they wanted to go there. But at the time, it has to be said, I thought of as more artisan shops than roller coasters, which did not compute in my 13 year old brain.

While my mum mooched round the Limoges crockery factory at a snail’s pace I sat in the car with my little sisters and to amuse them I invented Clive, a tortoise who got into lots of adventures. He was drawn in single scene cartoons, as he still is, in the back of an old exercise book (another boon of teaching parents, no shortage of paper for games like noughts and crosses, boxes, hangman and, of course, Clive.) That was now many years ago. I guess around 12-14 years ago, now being 2012.

We have grown up, but Clive is still here and has now joined the 21^st Century and gone across to the internet.

Clive had friends, who might yet make the jump to cyberspace. Grin the Platypus and Gary the Gazelle. Although these two wise-guys are mostly reserved to shadow puppets on the inside of our 70s trailer tent.   

So here he is. Clive the Tortoise. I hope you like him.

David Newell