Editing Amanda Craig

{{Short description|British novelist, critic and journalist}}
{{for|the American volleyball player|Amanda Craig (volleyball)}}
{{BLP sources|date=December 2022}}
{{Use British English|date=August 2011}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2020}}
{{Infobox writer
| embed            = 
| name             = Amanda Craig
| image            = 
| caption          = 
| image_size       = 
| birth_date       = {{Birth year and age|1959}}
| birth_place      = South Africa
| death_date       = 
| death_place      = 
| resting_place    = 
| occupation       = Critic<br />Journalist
| language         = 
| nationality      = British
| alma_mater       = Clare College, Cambridge
| genre            = 
}}

'''Amanda Craig''' (born 1959) is a British novelist, critic and journalist. 

==Early life==

Born in South Africa, Craig grew up in Italy before moving to [[London]].<ref>[https://www.bookbrowse.com/biographies/index.cfm/author_number/721/amanda-craig  Book Browse website, ''Amanda Craig'']</ref> Her parents were British journalist, author and [[UN]] Press Officer Dennis Craig and South African journalist Zelda Wolhuter, who left [[Johannesburg]] following the [[Sharpeville Massacre]] and the rise of apartheid.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Craig |first=Amanda |date=2018-10-25 |title=My almost accidental case of marrying 'in' |url=https://www.thejc.com/family-and-education/my-almost-accidental-case-of-marrying-in-k9fkfv68 |access-date=2025-02-06 |website=The Jewish Chronicle |language=en}}</ref> Craig studied at [[Bedales School]] and read English Literature at [[Clare College, Cambridge]].<ref>[https://www.curtisbrown.co.uk/client/amanda-craig#:~:text=Amanda%20Craig%20is%20a%20British,School%20and%20Clare%20College%20Cambridge.  Curtis Brown Group website, ''Amanda Craig'']</ref> After graduation, she worked briefly in advertising for [[J. Walter Thompson]] and [[Terence Conran]] before leaving to work as a cleaner for 18 months.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Amanda Craig {{!}} 'I had one of the worst débuts you could possibly think of' |url=https://www.thebookseller.com/author-interviews/amanda-craig-what-about-vast-numbers-very-good-middle-aged-women-who-really-are-almost |access-date=2024-11-13 |website=The Bookseller |language=En}}</ref> She then became a journalist.

==Writing==
;Journalism
For ten years, she was the children's books critic for ''[[The Times]]'' and a features writer for ''[[The Sunday Times]]''. She has contributed to ''[[The Observer]]'', ''[[The Guardian]]'', the ''[[New Statesman]]'' and [[BBC Radio 4]]. As a journalist, Craig won the [[British Press Awards]] 1995 Young Journalist of the Year and the 1997 [[Catherine Pakenham Award]]. She worked on the staff of ''[[Tatler]]'' and the ''[[Sunday Express]]'' before becoming a freelance feature writer, literary critic and columnist for ''[[The Daily Telegraph]]'', ''[[The Sunday Times]]'', the ''[[Daily Mail]]'', ''[[The Independent]]'', and ''[[The Observer]]''. She judged the [[Whitbread Novel Award]] in 2005, the [[Booktrust]] Teen Book Award in 2008, and the 2018 [[Jewish Quarterly-Wingate Prize|Wingate Prize]].<ref>Sugarman, Daniel (15 June 2017), [https://www.thejc.com/news/uk-news/jq-wingate-book-prize-judges-named-1.440119 "JQ Wingate book prize judges named"], ''[[The Jewish Chronicle]]''.</ref> Craig was dropped as a judge for the [[Mslexia]] Fiction & Memoir Competition by women’s writing magazine ''[[Mslexia]]'' in September 2020 after she signed a letter to ''[[The Times]]'' condemning online abuse of [[J.K. Rowling]].<ref>Cowdrey, Catherine (September 30, 2020). [https://www.thebookseller.com/news/mslexia-asks-amanda-craig-step-down-judge-over-concern-rowling-letter-threatens-climate Craig asked to step down as Myslexia judge after signing Rowling support letter]. ''[[The Bookseller]]''.</ref><ref>{{cite tweet|number=1311252031764606976|user=Mslexia|title=Mslexia on Twitter: "<nowiki>https://t.co/bWTKkWnWWT</nowiki>" / Twitter|date=30 September 2020}}</ref>

;Novels
Craig has written a cycle of nine [[novel sequence|interconnected novels]] dealing with contemporary British society. Her 1996 novel ''[[A Vicious Circle]]'' was originally contracted to be published by [[Hamish Hamilton]], but was cancelled after a libel threat from David Sexton, [[literary editor]] of the ''[[Evening Standard]]'' and former boyfriend of Craig's at Cambridge, fifteen years previously.<ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/1996/12/01/magazine/a-vicious-roman-a-clef.html "A 'Vicious' Roman a Clef"], ''[[The New York Times]]'', 1 December 1996.</ref> The novel was bought by [[HarperCollins#Imprints|Fourth Estate]] and published three months later.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2003-07-16 |title=Love etc: Amanda Craig |url=https://www.thetimes.com/article/love-etc-amanda-craig-st0l75zx973 |access-date=2025-02-04 |website=www.thetimes.com |language=en}}</ref> 

Although each novel can be read separately, they are linked to each other by common characters and themes, thus constituting a [[novel sequence]]. Craig has been cited as a state-of-the-nation novelist by [[Sameer Rahim]] in ''[[Prospect (magazine)|Prospect]]'' and by ''[[The Sunday Times]]''.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.thetimes.com/article/books-the-lie-of-the-land-by-amanda-craig-dblvbj0cf|title=Books: The Lie of the Land by Amanda Craig|first=Francesca|last=Angelini|date=11 June 2017|newspaper=The Times}}</ref> Usually, Craig takes a minor character and makes him or her the protagonist of her next work. She has been praised by [[Allison Pearson]] in ''[[The Sunday Telegraph]]''<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/books/what-to-read/can-novelist-heal-divides-brexit-britain-step-forward-amanda/|title=Can a novelist heal the divides of Brexit Britain? Step forward, Amanda Craig|first=Allison|last=Pearson|date=10 July 2017|newspaper=The Telegraph}}</ref> for her "...wit, indignation, an ear for the telling phrase and an unflagging attention to all the individual choices by which we define ourselves – where we stand as a society and how we decline and fall."

Craig's fourth novel, ''In a Dark Wood'', concerned the interplay between fairytales and manic depression, and her fifth, ''Love in Idleness'', updates [[Shakespeare]]'s ''[[A Midsummer Night's Dream]]'', setting the story in a holiday villa near [[Cortona]], Italy. Her sixth novel, ''Hearts and Minds'', concerned with the lives of legal and illegal immigrants in London, was longlisted for the 2009 [[Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction]].

Her seventh novel, ''The Lie of the Land'' (2017), depicted a London professional couple who can't afford to divorce and move to Devon to a rented house which has been the scene of a murder, was cited as "in the vanguard of the [[Brexit]] novel" by Danuta Kean in ''[[The Guardian]]''.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/jan/09/vanguard-of-brexit-fiction-set-to-appear-in-2017-mark-billingham|title=Vanguard of Brexit fiction set to appear in 2017|first=Danuta|last=Kean|date=9 January 2017|website=The Guardian}}</ref> It was praised by [[Henry Hitchings]] in the ''[[Financial Times]]'', who commented: "An enjoyable, sharp-witted and at times knowingly melodramatic novel, it lives up to the promise of its title – diagnosing the state of the nation without becoming grandiose, and debunking a few quaint myths about the patterns and textures of rural life."<ref>{{cite news |last1=Hitchings |first1=Henry |title=The Lie of the Land by Amanda Craig — another country |url=https://www.ft.com/content/c4ff3488-4f64-11e7-a1f2-db19572361bb |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221210/https://www.ft.com/content/c4ff3488-4f64-11e7-a1f2-db19572361bb |archive-date=10 December 2022 |url-access=subscription |access-date=23 January 2022 |work=Financial Times |date=16 June 2017}}</ref> It was [[BBC Radio 4]]'s ''[[Book at Bedtime]]'' in August 2017. ''The Guardian'' chose it as one of the 2017 Books of the Year,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/nov/30/best-books-fiction-2017|title=The best fiction of 2017|first=Justine|last=Jordan|date=30 November 2017|website=The Guardian}}</ref> as did ''The Irish Times'',<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/fiction-history-humour-emotion-the-best-books-of-2017-1.3311019|title=Fiction, history, humour, emotion: The best books of 2017|first=Martin|last=Doyle|newspaper=The Irish Times}}</ref> ''The Financial Times'',<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.ft.com/content/fb3ddfd0-d633-11e7-8c9a-d9c0a5c8d5c9 |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221210/https://www.ft.com/content/fb3ddfd0-d633-11e7-8c9a-d9c0a5c8d5c9 |archive-date=10 December 2022 |url-access=subscription|title=Best books of 2017: Fiction|first=Rebecca|last=Rose|date=1 December 2017|website=Financial Times}}</ref> ''The Observer'',<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/dec/03/alex-preston-best-fiction-2017-lincoln-in-bardo-george-saunders-4321-paul-auster|title=Alex Preston's best fiction of 2017|first=Alex|last=Preston|date=3 December 2017|website=The Guardian}}</ref> and ''The Telegraph''.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/books/what-to-read/book-give-christmas-harassed-mum-non-reading-nephew-fulminating/|title=Books to give this Christmas to harassed mum, non-reading nephew, fulminating uncle – and 13 other headscratchers|first=Allison|last=Pearson|date=10 December 2017|newspaper=The Telegraph}}</ref>

Craig has set two of her novels, ''A Private Place'' and ''The Lie of the Land'', in [[Devon]], a county that she has compared to [[C. S. Lewis]]'s [[Narnia (world)|Narnia]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/jul/22/devon-heaven-beauty-hell-damp-dullness-amanda-craig|title='Devon is a heaven of beauty and inspiration and a hell of damp and dullness' – Amanda Craig|first=Amanda|last=Craig|date=22 July 2017|website=The Guardian}}</ref> In an interview with Jackie McGlone of ''[[The Glasgow Herald]],'' Craig described how encountering the poverty of North Devon shocked her.<ref>McGlone, Jackie (16 June 2017), [https://www.heraldscotland.com/arts_ents/15351326._Politicians_forget_or_despise_people_in_remote_farming_areas_/ "Review: The Lie of the Land, by Amanda Craig"], ''The Herald''.</ref> Her eighth novel, ''The Golden Rule,'' was published in 2020 and was described as a "wry comedy-cum-thriller reimagining of [[Patricia Highsmith]] ''Strangers on a Train'' and ''Beauty and the Beast''",<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.thetimes.com/culture/books/article/the-golden-rule-by-amanda-craig-review-strangers-on-a-train-in-cornwall-9cf9xkgk3|title = The Golden Rule by Amanda Craig review — Strangers on a Train in Cornwall|last1 = Ross-Southall|first1 = Review by Mika}}</ref> "offering comfort and wit, compassion and philosophical speculation,"<ref>{{cite news |last1=Anderson |first1=Hephzibah |title=The Golden Rule by Amanda Craig review – exquisite escapism |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/jun/29/the-golden-rule-by-amanda-craig-review-exquisite-escapism |access-date=23 January 2022 |work=The Guardian |date=29 June 2020}}</ref> although one critic commented of the millennial protagonist: "Craig’s language choices... make her seem weirdly prim.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Lowry |first=Elizabeth |date=2020-06-17 |title=The Golden Rule by Amanda Craig review – a rollicking summer read |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/jun/17/the-golden-rule-by-amanda-craig-review-a-rollicking-summer-read |access-date=2024-06-05 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}</ref> ''The Golden Rule'' was longlisted for the 2021 Women's Prize for fiction.<ref>[https://www.curtisbrown.co.uk/news/6928  The Curtis Brown Group website, ''Susanna Clarke and Amanda Craig longlisted for Women’s Prize for Fiction 2021'', article dated March 11, 2021]</ref> Her ninth novel was ''The Three Graces'' (2023),<ref name="Guardian_Clark_2023">{{cite news |last1=Clark |first1=Alex |title=The Three Graces by Amanda Craig review – trouble in paradise |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/may/28/the-three-graces-by-amanda-craig-review-trouble-in-paradise |access-date=25 October 2023 |work=The Observer |date=28 May 2023}}</ref> described by ''The Telegraph'' as "smartly plotted but ultimately lightweight."

Craig is interested in fairytales and children's fiction, and was one of the first critics to praise [[J. K. Rowling]], [[Philip Pullman]], [[Cressida Cowell]], [[Stephenie Meyer]], [[Anthony Horowitz]], [[Malorie Blackman]] and [[Suzanne Collins]].<ref>{{Cite news|title=Authors unite behind Times children's book reviewer|date=28 November 2013|work=London Evening Standard|page=16}}</ref>

Craig gave [https://trollopesociety.org/lectures/talks/amandacraig the annual Trollope Society lecture in 2022] and [https://www.telegraph.co.uk/books/what-to-read/dorothy-l-sayers-peter-wimsey-100-anniversary the 2023 Dorothy L Sayers lecture, published in the Daily Telegraph] stating that both had influenced her novels and her life-choices. 

Following her struggle to get ''A Vicious Circle'' published, she became an active campaigner with [[International PEN]] for the reform of UK [[English defamation law|libel laws]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/9356522/Libel-laws-I-could-still-be-sued-and-lose-everything.html|title=Libel laws: I could still be sued and lose everything|first=Amanda|last=Craig|date=27 June 2012|newspaper=The Telegraph}}</ref>

In an opinion piece in ''[[The Independent]]'', Craig asked why fiction remains obsessed by [[historical fiction]] and neglects the contemporary,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/stuck-in-the-past-why-is-modern-literature-obsessed-with-history-1667709.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090415103617/http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/stuck-in-the-past-why-is-modern-literature-obsessed-with-history-1667709.html |archive-date=2009-04-15 |url-access=limited |url-status=live|newspaper=The Independent|title=Stuck in the past: Why is modern literature obsessed with history?|first=Amanda|last=Craig|date=13 April 2009}}</ref> saying she has "set out to take the DNA of a Victorian novel – its spirit of realism, its strong plot, its cast of characters who are not passively shaped by circumstances but who rise to challenges or escape them." She has said in interviews that she considers writing contemporary fiction to be "a moral duty".<ref>{{Cite news |last=Allfree |first=Claire |date=2023-05-17 |title=Amanda Craig: 'Chick lit has been disastrous for women writers' |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/books/authors/amanda-craig-novelist-interview/ |access-date=2024-06-05 |work=The Telegraph |language=en-GB |issn=0307-1235}}</ref>

;Other
Craig's short stories have been published in ''[[Good Housekeeping]]'', ''[[The Mail on Sunday]]'', the ''[[Sunday Express]]'', the ''[[New Statesman]]'' and collections such as [[Valentine's Day]] ''[[Duckworth Overlook|Duckworth]]'' and ''[[Good Housekeeping]]'' ''Great Escapes'' in support of Childline.

In 2011, she contributed the short story "Red Berries" to an anthology supporting the Woodland Trust. The anthology, ''Why Willows Weep'',<ref>{{cite web |url=http://indiebooks.co.uk/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=63 |title= Why Willows Weep: Contemporary Tales from the Woods|website=indiebooks.co.uk |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160917230626/http://indiebooks.co.uk/index.php?route=product%2Fproduct&product_id=63 |archive-date=17 September 2016}}</ref> has so far helped the [[Woodland Trust]] plant approximately 50,000 trees, and was re-released in [[paperback]] format in 2016. In 2017 she contributed the short story "Metamorphosis 2" about a celebrity inspired by [[Katie Hopkins]] who transforms into a gigantic cockroach to the anthology ''A Country of Refuge'' supporting refugees.

She has written forewords for the 2021 Abacus reissues of 5 novels by [[Beryl Bainbridge]] - ''Every Man For Himself'', ''Master Georgie'', ''The Birthday Boys'', ''According to Queenie'' and ''The Bottle Factory Outing'', 2 novels by [[Eva Ibbotson]] - ''The Secret Countess'' and ''A Glove Shop In Vienna'', reissued by Macmillan - plus [[Alison Lurie]]'s Pulitzer Prize-winning ''Foreign Affairs''.

==Adaptations==
In 2023, it was announced that the rights to ''The Three Graces'' had been optioned by television company Monumental Television. <ref>{{Cite web |last1=televisual.com |last2=Creamer |first2=Jon |date=2023-11-09 |title=Monumental options rights to Amanda Craig's Three Graces |url=https://www.televisual.com/news/monumental-options-rights-to-amanda-craigs-three-graces/ |access-date=2025-02-04 |website=Televisual}}</ref>

==Personal life==
Craig is married to British economist Rob Cohen, with whom she has two children. She lives in London and Devon.

==Bibliography==

===Books===
* {{cite book <!--|author=Craig, Amanda--> |title=Foreign bodies |publisher=Hutchinson |year=1990}}
* ''A Private Place'' (1991), Hutchinson
* ''[[A Vicious Circle]]'' (1996), [[HarperCollins#Imprints|4th Estate]]
* ''In a Dark Wood'' (2000), 4th Estate
* ''Love in Idleness'' (2003), [[Little, Brown Book Group|Little, Brown UK]] 
* ''Hearts and Minds'' (2009), Little, Brown UK
* ''The Other Side of You'' (novella) (2017), Little, Brown UK
* ''The Lie of the Land'' (2017), Little, Brown UK
* ''The Golden Rule'' (2020), Little, Brown UK
* ''The Three Graces'' (2023), Little, Brown UK

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* {{official|http://www.amandacraig.com }}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20091112112447/http://www.theinterviewonline.co.uk/library/books/amanda-craig-interview.aspx Audio slideshow interview with Amanda Craig] on The Interview Online

{{Portal |Children's literature}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Craig, Amanda}}
[[Category:1959 births]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:20th-century British novelists]]
[[Category:21st-century British novelists]]
[[Category:Children's literature criticism]]
[[Category:People educated at Bedales School]]
[[Category:Alumni of Clare College, Cambridge]]
[[Category:English women novelists]]
[[Category:21st-century British short story writers]]
[[Category:Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature]]
[[Category:Jewish English writers]]
[[Category:21st-century English women writers]]
[[Category:20th-century English women writers]]
[[Category:20th-century English writers]]
[[Category:New Statesman people]]