Mary Craig (2 July 1928 – 3 December 2019)[1][2] was a journalist and a British writer.[3] She lived in
Hampshire,
England.[4]
Life
Craig was born in 1929 in St Helens. Her parents were Annie Mary (née Johnson) and the late William Joseph (Billy) Clarkson, motor salesman, who lived at the Scarisbrick Arms in St Helens. Her father had already died after being trapped with his car in a snow drift the year before and her five year old brother shared the same grave as he fell out of a train while going to his father's funeral.[5]
She wrote fourteen books starting in 1978, including a trilogy on
Tibet, biographies of personalities, including
John Paul II,
Lech Walesa and
Frank Pakenham. She also wrote autobiographical works that addressed the death of Frank, her husband who died of cancer, and the story of their son suffering from
Hurler syndrome.[6] The website of her book Voices from Silence says, "Many of her books share a common theme of the examination of spirituality in the post
war world."[7]
She was the author of Kundun, the first biography of the
14th Dalai Lama to contextualize his story with that of his family members.[8]
To write her book about the Chinese occupation of Tibet (Tears of Blood (1992)), she visited several times
Dharamsala, home of the 14th Dalai Lama and of the
Central Tibetan Administration, where she forges bonds of lasting friendships. In 1993, she made numerous visits to Dharamsala to interview members of the family of the Dalai Lama to write Kundun, regretting she could not meet the mother of the Dalai Lama, Dekyi Tsering (Amala), disappeared before her visit in North India.[9]
Lech Walesa : the leader of Solidarity and campaigner for freedom and human rights in Poland, Exley, 1989,
ISBN1850151075
Candles in the dark : six modern martyrs, Hodder and Stoughton, 1984,
ISBN0340342544
The crystal spirit : Lech Wałęsa and his Poland, Coronet, 1986,
ISBN0340418958
Man from a Far Country : A Portrait of Pope John Paul II, Hodder and Stoughton, 1979,
ISBN0340242353
Blessings : an autobiographical fragment, Morrow, 1979,
ISBN068803456X
Longford : a biographical portrait, Hodder and Stoughton, 1978,
ISBN0340232676
Spark from Heaven: The Mystery of the Madonna of Medjugorje Paperback – Aug 1988
by Mary Craig (Author)Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton Ltd (1 Jun. 1988)
Language: English
ISBN0340416130ISBN978-0340416136