Elizabeth Josephine Craig, MBE, FRSA (16 February 1883 – 7 June 1980) was a Scottish journalist, home economist and a notable author on cookery.

Early life and family

Elizabeth Craig was born on 16 February 1883 in Addiewell, West Lothian to Catherine Anne Nicoll (died 3 March 1929) and Reverend John Mitchell Craig. Craig 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, Scotland. She attended Forfar Academy and George Watson's Ladies' College in Edinburgh before returning to Forfar Academy as a teacher.

Journalism

Craig's writing career began in Dundee where she studied journalism. She first published a cookery feature in the Daily Express in 1920, following comments from the Daily Mail's film editor, who declared she was "the only woman in Fleet Street who could cook". Craig was 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.

Cooking

Craig started to cook when she was six years old and began collecting recipes from age 12. She declared that the only formal training she had in cookery was a "three months course in Dundee". She began publishing cookery books after the end of World War I and proceeded through World War II and into 1980. She began writing in times when food was scarce and rationing was heavily relied upon, and her focus broadened 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.

Personal life

Craig's engagement to American war correspondent and broadcaster Arthur E. Mann (died 9 June 1973) of Washington, D.C., was announced on 11 August 1919, and they were married at St Martin in the Fields Church, Trafalgar Square.

Publications

Cookery books

Promotional recipe books

Books on housekeeping and gardening