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.[2]
Craig's writing career began in Dundee where she studied journalism.[3] 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".[4] 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.[5]
Craig started to cook when she was six years old and began collecting recipes from age 12.[6] She declared that the only formal training she had in cookery was a "three months course in Dundee".[7] She 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. [citation needed]
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.[8]
^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 ..."
^"Forthcoming marriages: Mr A E Mann and Miss Craig". The Times. 11 August 1919. p. 9.
^The Times, "Forthcoming Marriages", 11 August 1919.
^Published by G Delgado Ltd as a weekly calendar, three recipes per week
^"Mauduit's cookery book: the vicomte in the kitchen / the art of cooking, preserving, eating, and drinking; with the manner how to make simple dishes; all kinds of banqueting stuffs, of the wines to be drunk with them; and of sauces, syrups, and jams. Also a selection of recipes from many continents, countries, and counties; together with many economic and distinguished novelties; with finally a choice of menus for all occasions, seasons, purses, and moods / by Vicomte de Mauduit". London: S. Nott, 1934. A cheap edition was issued by James Clarke in 1937. For Georges Mauduit de Kervern, Vicomte, 1893-1940s, see: hereArchived 11 March 2012 at the Wayback Machine)
