Dennis — for real

The real life inspiration for Dennis the Menace, one of UK's favourite cartoon characters, has been revealed. Sporting spiky hair as a kid, Robert Fair, an ex-merchant navy officer from Dundee, is now running a garage in New Zealand. Fair's father was on friendly terms with David Davey Law, who created the character. He emigrated from the UK 38 years ago. And recently he came to know that the famous character was based on him. Law, who died in 1971, never told his family, reports the Times. The revelation was made by Law's daughter, Rosemary Moffat. "The description of Dennis the Menace does sound like me when I was young. I was always getting into trouble and I got a few slaps from my father and the belt at school lots of times," he said. Fair recalled how he perched books on top of doors so they would fall on the heads of the adults. Moffat said Fair's sense of mischief gave her father the idea for the first Dennis the Menace strip in 1951.