Elizabeth Craig (writer)

Elizabeth Josephine Craig, MBE, FRSA (16 February 1883 – 7 June 1980) was a Scottish journalist, home economist and one of the most notable British modern writers on cookery of the twentieth century, whose career lasted some sixty years.

Contents

Early life and family

Elizabeth Craig was born in Linlithgowshire (now West Lothian), Scotland to John Mitchell Craig (then a student of Divinity) and Catherine Anne Craig (died 3 March 1929). She was one of eight children and her father was a minister of the Free Church of Scotland. The family lived at the Manse in Memus, Kirriemuir, in Scotland. In 1978, two years before her death, she declared that she had a "wonderful childhood in Scotland".[1]

After having her engagement announced in The Times (a London newspaper) on 11 August 1919, she married American war correspondent and broadcaster Arthur Mann of Washington, D.C. (died 9 June 1973),[2] at St Martin in the Fields Church, Trafalgar Square. They had no children but lived with her niece (called Elizabeth Jean Craig, and the daughter of her brother Ernest Craig), featuring her in many of her newspaper articles. She retained her maiden name for the purpose of her books.

Her niece Elizabeth Jean Craig has four children: Susie Field (a former advertising executive in Edinburgh), Louise Adorian (lives in Dorchester), Deborah Reilly (lives in Chard) and Julian Henry (a public relations executive in London).

Journalism

Elizabeth Craig's writing career began in Dundee where she studied journalism[3].

She first published a cookery feature in the Daily Express in 1920, after 8 years in journalism, following comments from the Daily Mail’s then film editor who declared she was “the only woman in Fleet Street who could cook”[4].

This talented writer was soon noticed by other newspapers and magazines who engaged her to write for them, and she published her first book in 1923. A successful career ensued, publications appearing in many national newspapers, and many more books being written. Craig, like many other food writers successfully managed to make a career from her love and passion for cooking[5].

Craig was also a founding member of the International P.E.N., and at the request of the founder, Catharine Dawson Scott, attended the first meeting of the association at the Florence Restaurant in London where John Galsworthy was elected its first president[6]

Cooking

Elizabeth Craig’s love of cooking lasted her whole life. She started to cook when she was six and she started to collect recipes from the age of 12.[7] She declared that the only formal training she had in cookery was a “three months course in Dundee”.[8]

Craig began publishing cookery books after the end of World War I and proceeded through World War II and into the 1980s. She began writing in times when food was scarce and rationing was heavily relied upon, and her career ended when the majority of households had a refrigerator and an opportunity to access a much wider variety of foods: this can be observed in her writing as more diverse dishes appear in her later books.

Her contribution to English culinary literature comprises a very large corpus of traditional British recipes, although not only this: included are also a considerable collection of recipes from other countries which she liked to collect during visits abroad[9]

Commercial endorsements

As well as publishing many books, Craig also capitalised on her celebrity status as a household name in other ways: she endorsed many food products, restaurants, kitchen apparatus and slimming aids both in newspaper advertisements and in promotional recipe books.

Awards

Apart from those listed above, Craig was also given an award at the Woman of the Year Awards at the Savoy Hotel in London in 1967.

Publications

Cookery books

  • 1935 Elizabeth Craig's Everyday Cooking
  • 1936 Cookery Illustrated and Household Management
  • 1936 Woman, Wine and a Saucepan
  • 1936 Bubble and Squeak
  • 1937 278 Tested Recipes
  • 1940 Cooking in War-Time
  • 1940 Cookery: a Time-Saving Cook Book
  • 1940 1500 Everyday Menus
  • 1950 Cooking for Today
  • 1952 Elizabeth Craig's Practical Cooking
  • 1953 Court Favourites; Recipes from Royal Kitchens
  • 1955 Beer and Vittels
  • 1956 The Scottish Cookery Book (see also 1980)
  • 1956 A Book of Mediterranean Food
  • 1957 Instructions to Young Cooks
  • 1957 Collins Family Cookery (see also 1971)
  • 1958 Scandinavian Cooking
  • 1959 A Cook's Guide to Wine
  • 1960 Cottage Cheese and Yogurt
  • 1962 Banana Dishes
  • 1965 What's Cooking in Scotland
  • 1965 The Penguin Salad Book
  • 1965 Cook Continentale
  • 1969 The Art of Irish Cooking
  • 1970 The Business Woman's Cookbook
  • 1971 Collins Family Cookery (see also 1957)
  • 1978 Elizabeth Craig's Hotch Potch
  • 1980 The Scottish Cookery Book (see also 1956)

Promotional recipe books

Unknown dates
  • 19?? More Everyday Dishes (Tate & Lyle Sugars & Syrups)
  • 19?? Primula Presents Recipes by Elizabeth Craig
  • 19?? The Kikkoman Book of Recipes
  • 19?? 101 Recipes and Uses for Malt Vinegar (Malt Vinegar Brewers Association)
Known dates
  • 1930 250 Recipes for use with Borwick's Baking Powder
  • 1932 New Ways of using Custard (Foster Clark Ltd)
  • 1934 The Importance of Eating Potatoes (Potato Marketing Board)
  • 1937 The Way to a Good Table: electric cookery (British Electrical Development Association)
  • 1938 (ca.)' Cooking Made Easier (Foster Clark Ltd - ca. 1938)
  • 1940 OxO Meat Cookery! The Oxo Way
  • 1940 Slim While You Eat, a calendar with over 100 recipes
  • 1949 (ca.) Elizabeth Craig's Invalid Recipe Book (Benger’s Food Limited - ca. 1949)
  • 1949 Chicken in the Kitchen
  • 1954 Waterless Cooking (Milbro Vapour Seal Waterless Cookers)

Books on housekeeping and gardening

  • 1936 Elizabeth Craig's Simple Housekeeping
  • 1936 The Housewives' Monthly Calendar
  • 1936 Keeping House with Elizabeth Craig
  • 1937 Elizabeth Craig's Household Library (1937 onwards)
  • 1938 Elizabeth's Craig's Simple Gardening
  • 1940 Gardening with Elizabeth Craig (Gardening in wartime)
  • 1941 Elizabeth Craig's Needlecraft
  • 1947 Housekeeping: a book for the single-handed housewife
  • 1947 1000 Household Hints
  • 1950 Elizabeth Craig's Enquire Within
  • 1952 Elizabeth Craig's Practical Gardening

Translations

Contributions to radio and television

Filmography

References

  1. ^ BBC Archives - Elizabeth Craig's appearance on Parkinson
  2. ^ The Times: Forthcoming Marriages, 11/8/1919
  3. ^ The Times: The Times Diary - Campari and pie with the chaps, 14/2/1973
  4. ^ Eastern Evening News: Kathleen Burke's View - Elizabeth Craig's new book, 5/6/1968
  5. ^ The Times: Obituaries, 11/6/1980
  6. ^ The Times, 25/6/1980
  7. ^ As note 2, above
  8. ^ As note 1, above
  9. ^ Craig, Elizabeth Cooking with Elizabeth Craig, ed. 1949. London: Collins; p.3 (there are many earlier editions, 1930s and 1940s) From the foreword (To those who like to cook): "I have tried to cater for all those who write to me, not only from home but from abroad ... for those who like English fare, and for those who, through travelling, have developed a cosmopolitan taste. Personally, I take great interest in all cuisines. Every time I have been to Paris, to Germany, I have picked up ideas to introduce to my table. In Canada and the United States, I shamelessly purloined not only treasured recipes but new methods of serving food ..."