Amanda Craig is a highly respected British author, journalist, and critic. She was born in South Africa in 1959 and spent her childhood in Italy before moving to London with her parents. Craig's parents were both journalists, with her father, Dennis Craig, being a UN Press Officer and British journalist, and her mother, Zelda Wolhuter, a journalist from South Africa. Craig's writing career has seen her receive the Catherine Pakenham Award and become a bestselling novelist. She has written several standalone books, including "A Vicious Circle," "The Other Side of You," "Foreign Bodies," "Love In Idleness," "A Private Place," "Lie of the Land," and "Hearts and Minds."\n \n Craig has also written numerous short stories that have been published in popular magazines such as the Sunday Express, Good Housekeeping, New Statesman, and Mail on Sunday. In addition to her work as a novelist and short-story writer, Craig has also worked as a journalist and critic. She was one of the first critics to praise JK Rowling and Philip Pullman in The New Statesman and is currently the children's critic for The Times.
Craig's novels are known for their strong plots, featuring murder, romance, and social satire. Her writing has been compared to that of Anthony Trollope, Charles Dickens, Honore de Balzac, and Evelyn Waugh. She has been referred to as a "state of the nation novelist" by Prospect magazine and the Sunday Times. Craig's novels often feature interconnected characters and themes, with minor characters from one novel becoming major characters in the next. Her novels include "A Private Place," "A Vicious Circle," "In a Dark Wood," "Love in Idleness," "Hearts and Minds," "The Other Side of You," and "The Lie Of the Land," which was adapted for BBC Radio 4. Her new novel, "The Golden Rule," will be published in June 2020. Craig is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.