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 , mottoeng = For so much, what shall we give back? , top_free_label = , top_free = , top_free_label1 = , top_free1 = , top_free_label2 = , top_free2 = , established = , closed = , type = Public research university , parent = ...

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