Craig, Patricia 1949–

PERSONAL: Born January 16, 1949, in Belfast, Northern Ireland; daughter of W.A.T. (a mechanic) and Nora T. (a teacher; maiden name, Brady) Craig; married Jeffrey Morgan (a painter). Education: Attended Belfast College of Art, 1966–69, and Central School of Art, London, 1969–72; received diploma in art design.

ADDRESSES: Home—County Antrim, Ireland. Agent—Drury House, 34-43 Russell Street, London, WC2B 5HA, England; fax: 020-7836-9543.

CAREER: Writer and critic. Girls' school art teacher, 1972–73; freelance writer, 1976–.

MEMBER: Society of Authors.

WRITINGS:

(With Mary Cadogan) You're a Brick, Angela!: A New Look at Girls' Fiction, 1839–1975, Gollancz (London, England), 1976.

(With Mary Cadogan) Women and Children First: The Fiction of Two World Wars, Gollancz (London, England), 1978.

(With Mary Cadogan) The Lady Investigates: Women Detectives and Spies in Fiction, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 1982.

Elizabeth Bowen, Penguin (New York, NY), 1986.

(Editor) The Oxford Book of English Detective Stories, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 1990, revised, 2002.

The Penguin Book of British Comic Stories, Viking (New York, NY), 1991.

(Editor) The Rattle of the North: An Anthology of Ulster Prose, Blackstaff Press (Belfast, Ireland), 1992.

(Editor) The Oxford Book of Modern Women's Stories, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 1994.

(Editor) The Oxford Book of Schooldays, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 1994.

(Editor) The Oxford Book of Travel Stories, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 1996.

(Editor) The Oxford Book of Ireland, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 1998.

(Compiler and author of introduction) Twelve Irish Ghost Stories, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 1998.

(Editor) The Oxford Book of Detective Stories, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 2000.

Brian Moore: A Biography, Bloomsbury (London, England), 2002.

Contributor to magazines and newspapers, including the Times Literary Supplement, New Statesman & Society, and the Spectator. Children's book editor of Literary Review (London, England), 1979–82.

SIDELIGHTS: In The Lady Investigates: Women Detectives and Spies in Fiction, Patricia Craig and her coauthor Mary Cadogan examine the careers of more than one hundred fictional women detectives and spies. The authors begin with a nineteenth-century widow, Mrs. Paschal, and include such recent characters as policewoman Charmian Daniels. The authors divide the characters into two major categories: women whose success was based on their feminine characteristics (on "women's intuition," for instance), and women who have transcended their gender and competed with men as equals. The Lady Investigates has been described as lighthearted, but critics emphasized that this is a work of solid scholarship. For example, T.J. Binyon wrote in the Times Literary Supplement that "obviously a great deal of careful research has gone into this book. Mistakes are few and far between." And the Spectator contributor Hugh Massingberd remarked that "it is an enjoyable nostalgic experience to be regaled with these well-researched snippets from a long-established genre."

Craig once told CA: "When we first met, Mary Cadogan and I found that we were each thinking about a study of girls' fiction with a slightly feminist bias, so it seemed sensible to collaborate. This first collaboration led to two others. When writing about not-very-elevated genres, our aim was always to entertain as well as (we hoped) to be informative. We couldn't help being struck by the humor of the stories, whether it was unconscious or conscious on the part of the writers."

The author has gone on to serve as the editor for numerous anthologies, such as The Oxford Book of English Detective Stories, which features a series of stories presented chronologically beginning with writer Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of Sherlock Holmes. Publishers Weekly contributor Sybil Steinberg commented that the "anthology is chock-full of deductive reasoning, whimsy and that remarkable gift of the British: understatement." Craig gathers together a collection of British wit for The Penguin Book of British Comic Stories. An Economist contributor felt that Craig's primary objective as editor "is to have fun" and noted that Craig has "produced some refreshing novelties" in the book.

As editor of The Rattle of the North: An Anthology of Ulster Prose, Craig offers a broad collection of Irish writers, including the greats such as Oscar Wilde and James Joyce as well as lesser-known writers. Owen Dudley Edwards, writing in the New Statesman & Society, called the effort a "splendidly representative anthology." The Oxford Book of Schooldays presents a series of writings and stories about British schools by authors as diverse as Winston Churchill and Evelyn Waugh. An Economist contributor noted that the "book is presumably meant to be no more than an aid to nostalgia, and in this it succeeds admirably." Craig focuses on women's contributions to short story writing in the anthology The Oxford Book of Modern Women's Stories, which presents classics by such women writers as Willa Cather and stories by more recent writers such as Alice Munro. A Publishers Weekly contributor called the book "a splendid collection." Kathleen Hughes, writing in Booklist, noted, "This book is a stunning achievement that will linger in the mind of the reader long after the last story is read."

In The Oxford Book of Travel Stories, Craig gathers together travel tales from writers all over the world. Brad Hooper, writing in Booklist, noted that Craigs's "choices for inclusion are impeccable; treasures abound." In a review in London's Guardian, Ian Samson commented that "Craig's beautifully produced anthology is most definitely a book for the bedside table." Craig's anthology titled The Oxford Book of Ireland presents writings about Ireland and draws from sources dating back to the early Celtic writings on through to the late 1990s. Library Journal contributor Robert C. Moore noted that the editor's "challenge was to find fresh voices" and added: "To a degree she has succeeded."

Craig is also the author of Brian Moore: A Biography. The book explores the Irish novelist's life and works. Hermione Lee, writing in the Times Literary Supplement, noted that Moore "made meaning and power from his life out of a lasting love, long and warm friendships, a fine worldly pleasurable existence, and twenty magnificent novels, all of them remarkable, some of them great." Lee added, "If this honourable and generous biography keeps that success alive and sends readers back to those novels, it will have achieved what he would have wanted." In a review of the biography in the Spectator, Jonathan Keates noted that Craig "effortlessly conveys her subject's gift for friendship and his professional wizardry in always keeping several jumps ahead of both readers and critics" and also called the book a "sensitively weighed tribute." Seamus Deane commented in the Guardian that the biography is "a crisp and intelligent account of a man and a writer for whom Craig's clean and incisive approach seems perfectly appropriate."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Antioch Review, summer, 1995, Suzann Bick, review of The Oxford Book of Modern Women's Stories, p. 378.

Booklist, November 1, 1994, Kathleen Hughes, review of The Oxford Book of Modern Women's Stories, p. 478; September 1, 1996, Brad Hooper, review of The Oxford Book of Travel Stories, p. 63.

Economist, November 14, 1992, review of The Penguin Book of British Comic Stories, p. 112; March 5, 1994, review of The Oxford Book of Schooldays, p. 102.

Guardian (London, England), May 1, 1996, Ian Sansom, review of The Oxford Book of Travel Stories, p. 19; June 6, 1998, Steven Poole, review of The Oxford Book of Ireland, p. 10; December 14, 2002, Seamus Deane, review of Brian Moore: A Biography, p. 12.

Irish Literary Supplement, fall, 2004, Robert Lowery, review of The Oxford Book of Ireland, p. 32.

Library Journal, September 1, 1998, Robert C. Moore, review of The Oxford Book of Ireland, p. 198.

New Statesman & Society, January 29, 1993, Owen Dudley Edwards, review of Rattle of the North: An Anthology of Ulster Prose, p. 45.

Publishers Weekly, July 13, 1990, Sybil Steinberg, review of The Oxford Book of English Detective Stories, p. 44; January 11, 1991, Sybil Steinberg, review of The Penguin Book of British Comic Stories, p. 92; October 10, 1994, review of The Oxford Book of Modern Women's Stories, p. 60; August 5, 1996, review of The Oxford Book of Travel Stories, p. 432.

Spectator, April 11, 1981, Hugh Massingberd, review of The Lady Investigates: Women Detectives and Spies in Fiction; December 7, 2002, Jonathan Keates, review of Brian Moore, p. 46.

Sunday Telegraph (London, England), November 3, 2002, Anthony Thwaite, review of Brian Moore.

Times Literary Supplement, February 27, 1981, T.J. Binyon, review of The Lady Investigates; November 8, 2002, Hermione Lee, review of Brian Moore, p. 8.