Helen Craig

English children's book illustrator and writer

Helen Craig
Born	(1934-08-30) 30 August 1934 (age 89) London, UK
Occupation	Illustrator, writer, sculptor
Notable works	Angelina Ballerina

Helen Craig (born 30 August 1934)^[1] is an English children's book illustrator and writer. She is best known for creating the Angelina Ballerina series of children's books with writer Katharine Holabird.

Craig was born in London, evacuated during World War II and educated in Essex, then from 1943 at King Alfred's School in Hertfordshire, then in London.^[2] During the 1950s she worked as a portrait photographer in North London, then moved to Spain for 3 years, where she began making ceramic sculptures. Returning to the UK in 1967, she began illustrating children's books in 1970. The first book which she had both written and illustrated was The Mouse House ABC, published in 1977. With co-author Sarah Hayes she created "Bear", a popular children's character who appears in This Is The Bear (1986), This Is The Bear and the Picnic Lunch (1988), and This Is The Bear and the Scary Night (1992).^[3] Currently Craig has returned to the medium of sculpture and is making small figurative works.

Craig is the daughter of the film designer and writer Edward Carrick. Her great-grandmother was the stage actress Ellen Terry and her grandfather was theatrical scenic designer Edward Gordon Craig.^[4] One of her great-grandfathers was Gaetano Meo (1850–1925) an artist's model, painter and mosaicist, associated with the Pre-Raphelites. In 2018, with the assistance of mosaicist Tessa Hunkin, Craig restored the mosaic gravestone in Hampstead Cemetery which Meo created for his wife Agnes Morton and young son, under which he is also buried.^[5]

References

^ The Teacher's Calendar, 2007–2008. Chase's Calendar of Events. 2007. p. 21. ISBN 978-0-07-148123-6.
^ The Dictionary of 20th Century British Book Illustrators, Alan Horne (Antique Collectors' Club 1994), p. 154.
^ Silvey, Anita (1995). Children's books and their creators. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. pp. 176–77. ISBN 0-395-65380-0.
^ gglassreview.com/html/helen_craig.html "The Authors and Illustrators – Profiles: Helen Craig", Through The Looking Glass Children’s Book Reviews (lookingglassreview.com).
^ "At Gaetano Meo's Grave | Spitalfields Life". Retrieved 12 December 2018.

External links

Helen Craig Archived 27 December 2009 at the Wayback Machine at publisher Penguin Books (US)
Helen Craig at Library of Congress, with 111 library catalogue records

Authority control databases
International	FAST ISNI VIAF WorldCat
National	Spain France BnF data Germany Israel Belgium United States Czech Republic Korea Netherlands Poland
Artists	MusicBrainz
Other	SNAC IdRef

Terry family tree

Benjamin Terry^[i]
(1817–96)^[ii]

Sarah Ballard
(1819–92)^[ii]

Kate Terry
(1844–1924)^[ii]

Arthur Lewis
(1824–1901)

George Terry
(1852–1928)

Marion Terry
(1853–1930)^[ii]

Charles Terry
(1857–1933)^[iii]

Margaret Pratt
(1862–1941)

Fred Terry
(1863–1933)^[ii]

Julia Neilson
(1868–1957)^[iv]

Dame Ellen Terry
(1847–1928)^[ii]

Edward Godwin
(1833–86)^[v]

William Morris
(1856–19??)

Florence Terry
(1856–96)

Frank Gielgud
(1860–1949)

Kate Terry-Lewis
(1868–1958)

Mabel Terry-Lewis
(1872–1957)

Edmund Gwenn
(1877–1959)

Minnie Terry
(1882–1964)

Horace Terry
(1887–1957)

Beatrice Terry
(1890–1970)

Phyllis Neilson-Terry
(1892–1977)

Edith Craig
(1869–1947)^[v]

Helen Gibson
(1872–1949)

Gordon Craig
(1872–1966)^[v]

Elena Meo
(1879–1957)

Jack Morris
(1887–19??)

Olive Terry
(1884–1969)

Sir Charles Hawtrey
(1858–1923)

Dennis Neilson-Terry
(1895–1932)

Mary Glynne
(1895–1954)

Val Gielgud
(1900–81)

Sir John Gielgud
(1904–2000)

Rosemary Gordon Craig
(1894–19??)

Robin Craig
(1895–1992)

Anthony Hawtrey
(1909–54)

Geoffrey Keen
(1916–2005)

Hazel Terry
(1918–74)

Lewis Gielgud
(1894–1953)

Zita Gordon
(1911–2006)

Eleanor Gielgud
(1907–98)

Edward Carrick
(1905–98)

Helen Godfrey
(1899–1960)

Maina Gielgud
(born 1945)

Helen Craig
(born 1934)

Jemma Hyde
(born 1939)

Notes:

^ The family members who were actors, or associated with the theatre, are highlighted in amber
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Law, Jonathan (2013). The Methuen Drama Dictionary of the Theatre. A&C Black. ISBN 9781408145913.
^ "Charles Terry". Ancestry. Retrieved 21 February 2016.
^ Roy, Donald. "Neilson, Julia Emilie (1868–1957)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004, accessed 7 January 2010
^ ^a ^b ^c "Edward William Godwin". The Elmbridge Hundred. Retrieved 21 February 2016.