Patricia Craig (born 1940s
) is a writer,
anthologist
In book publishing, an anthology is a collection of literary works chosen by the compiler; it may be a collection of plays, poems, short stories, songs or excerpts by different authors.
In genre fiction, the term ''anthology'' typically catego ...
and literary critic from Northern Ireland, living in
Antrim, County Antrim
Antrim ( ga, Aontroim , meaning 'lone ridge') is a town and civil parish in County Antrim in the northeast of Northern Ireland, on the banks of the Six Mile Water, on the northeast shore of Lough Neagh. It had a population of 23,375 people in ...
.
Personal life
She was born in
Belfast
Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdo ...
to Nora (née Brady) and Andy Craig
and attended
St Dominic's Grammar School for Girls
St Dominic's Grammar School for Girls (Irish: Scoil Ghramadaí Naomh Doiminic do Chailíní), formerly St Dominic's High School, is a Catholic grammar school for girls aged 11–18 (Years 8–14), in Belfast, Northern Ireland.
History
St. Domi ...
before studying at the
Belfast School of Art
The Belfast School of Art, is a School in thUlster University Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciencesand is physically located at the Belfast campus. Following the results of the Research Excellence Framework 2014 Ulster is ranked within ...
and then at the
Central School of Arts and Crafts
The Central School of Art and Design was a public school of fine and applied arts in London, England. It offered foundation and degree level courses. It was established in 1896 by the London County Council as the Central School of Arts and Cr ...
, London (where she obtained a Diploma in Art & Design, Hons.). She returned to Northern Ireland in 1999.
She is married to the Welsh artist Jeffrey Morgan.
Career
In the late 1960s, Craig was at Notre Dame Convent School in Battersea, working as an art mistress, but longed to have a literary career.
Since then, she has written memoirs, edited several anthologies and written articles for newspapers.
In London she began to collaborate with
Mary Cadogan
Mary Cadogan (née Summersby) (30 May 1928 – 29 September 2014) was an English author. She wrote extensively on popular and children's fiction including biographies of the creators of William Brown (''Just William'') and Billy Bunter.
Biogr ...
, editing several books on children's literature. Their first book, ''You’re a Brick Angela!'', became a classic.
On her return to
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...
she began to write books with an Irish theme. One of the first was a biography of
Brian Moore which was described by the critic
Seamus Deane
Seamus Francis Deane (9 February 194012 May 2021) was an Irish poet, novelist, critic, and intellectual historian. He was noted for his debut novel, ''Reading in the Dark'', which won several literary awards and was nominated for the Booker Priz ...
as 'a crisp and intelligent account of a man and a writer for whom Craig's clean and incisive approach seems perfectly appropriate'.
Perhaps her most popular book was the memoir ''Asking for Trouble'' (1987) which details her schooldays, culminating in her expulsion from school.
Awards
She was Honorary Lecturer at
Queen's University Belfast
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where she was appointed to the Board of the
Seamus Heaney Centre for Poetry
The Seamus Heaney Centre is located at Queen's University Belfast, and named after the late Seamus Heaney, recipient of the 1995 Nobel Prize in Literature. Heaney graduated from Queens in 1961 with a First Class Honours in English language and l ...
.
Publications
* ''You're a Brick Angela!: The Girls' Story 1839–1985'' (1976)
* ''Women and Children First: The Fiction of Two World Wars'' (1978)
* ''The Lady Investigates: Women Detectives and Spies in Fiction'' (1986)
* ''The Oxford Book of English Detective Stories'' (1990)
* ''The Rattle of The North: An Anthology of Ulster Prose'' (1992)
* ''The Penguin Book of British Comic Stories'' (1992)
* ''The Oxford Book of Modern Women's Stories'' (1994)
* ''The Oxford Book of Schooldays'' (1995)
* ''The Oxford Book of Travel Stories'' (1996)
* ''The Oxford Book of Ireland'' (1998)
* ''Twelve Irish Ghost Stories'' (1998)
* ''The Belfast Anthology'' (1999)
* ''The Oxford Book of Detective Stories'' (2000)
* ''Brian Moore: A Biography'' (2002)
* ''Asking for Trouble'' (2008)
* ''A Twisted Root – Ancestral Entanglements in Ireland'' (2012)
* ''Bookworm, A Memoir of Childhood Reading'' (2015)
Notes
References
External links
Patricia Craig's articles and book reviews in ''The Independent''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Craig, Patricia
1940s births
Living people
20th-century biographers
20th-century Irish women writers
20th-century women writers from Northern Ireland
21st-century biographers
21st-century Irish women writers
21st-century memoirists
21st-century women writers from Northern Ireland
Alumni of Belfast School of Art
Alumni of the Central School of Art and Design
Irish literary critics
Irish memoirists
Irish women memoirists
People associated with Queen's University Belfast
People educated at St Dominic's Grammar School for Girls
Women anthologists
Women biographers
Women literary critics
Writers from Belfast