{{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 = | honorific_suffix = {{Post-nominals|country=GBR|FRSL|size=100%}} }}
'''Amanda Craig''' (born 1959) is a British novelist, critic and journalist.
==Biography==
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.
She is married to economist Rob Cohen. They have two children. Craig, and her daughter Leon Craig, also a novelist<ref>{{cite web |last1=Joseph |first1=Anne |title=Vampires, Vikings and a dybbuk too |url=https://www.thejc.com/life/vampires-vikings-and-a-dybbuk-too-tfp1sunr |publisher=The Jewish Chronicle |access-date=18 May 2026}}</ref>, feature in John Self's article on literary families in ''The Guardian''. <ref>{{cite web |last1=Self |first1=John |title=The rise of the literary nepo baby? The children of famous novelists on following in their parents’ footsteps |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2026/may/09/the-rise-of-the-literary-nepo-baby-the-children-of-famous-novelists-on-following-in-their-parents-footsteps |publisher=The Guardian |access-date=18 May 2026}}</ref>
She was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2018.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2023-09-01 |title=Craig, Amanda |url=https://rsliterature.org/fellows/amanda-craig/,%20https://rsliterature.org/fellows/amanda-craig/ |access-date=2025-07-08 |website=Royal Society of Literature |language=en-GB}}</ref>
==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 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 eleven 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 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 described as a state-of-the-nation novelist by Sameer Rahim in ''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.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Amanda Craig |url=https://womensprize.com/book-author/amanda-craig/ |access-date=2026-02-10 |website=Women's Prize |language=en-US}}</ref>
Her seventh novel, ''The Lie of the Land'' (2017), which depicted a London professional couple who can't afford to divorce, and who move to Devon to a rented house which has been the scene of a murder, was described 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.<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> She has been described by ''The Daily Telegraph'' as "a pioneering children’s fiction critic".<ref name="Allfree"/>
Craig gave the annual Trollope Society lecture in 2022 and the 2023 Dorothy L Sayers lecture.<ref name="a783">{{cite web | title=Amanda Craig ~ 35th AGM Annual Lecture | website=Trollope Society | date=26 October 2023 | url=https://trollopesociety.org/lectures/talks/amandacraig/ | access-date=9 February 2026}}</ref><ref name="c966">{{cite web | last=Craig | first=Amanda | title=How a silly blond toff transformed crime writing exactly 100 years ago | website=The Telegraph | date=1 October 2023 | url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/books/what-to-read/dorothy-l-sayers-peter-wimsey-100-anniversary/ | access-date=9 February 2026}}</ref>
Following her struggle to get ''A Vicious Circle'' published, she became a campaigner with International PEN for the reform of English defamation law.<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 name="Allfree">{{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/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230518011225/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/books/authors/amanda-craig-novelist-interview/|archive-date=18 May 2023|access-date=2024-06-05 |work=The Telegraph |language=en-GB |issn=0307-1235}}</ref>
Craig's eleventh novel ''High and Low'' focuses on the current volatile state of the nation. <ref>{{cite web |last1=Smart |first1=James |title=High and Low by Amanda Craig review – will Britain boil over? |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2026/may/12/high-and-low-by-amanda-craig-review-will-britain-boil-over |publisher=The Guardian |access-date=18 May 2026}}</ref>
==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>
==Bibliography==
===Books=== * {{cite book <!--|author=Craig, Amanda--> |title=Foreign bodies |publisher=Hutchinson |year=1990}} * ''A Private Place'' (1991), Hutchinson * ''A Vicious Circle'' (1996), 4th Estate * ''In a Dark Wood'' (2000), 4th Estate * ''Love in Idleness'' (2003), 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 * ''High and Low'' (2026), Little, Brown UK
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== * {{official website|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}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Craig, Amanda}} Category:1959 births Category:Living people Category:Children's literature criticism Category:People educated at Bedales School Category:Alumni of Clare College, Cambridge Category:21st-century British short story writers Category:Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature Category:Jewish English writers Category:New Statesman people Category:20th-century English women novelists Category:21st-century English women novelists Category:21st-century English novelists