Mary Craig Mary Craig (2 July 1928 – 3 December 2019) was a journalist and a British writer. She lived in

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English cities on its south coast, Southampton and Portsmouth, Hampshire ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

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. She wrote fourteen books starting in 1978, including a trilogy on

Tibet Tibet (; ''Böd''; ) is a region in East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are some other ethnic groups such as Monpa, Taman ...

, biographies of personalities, including

John Paul II Pope John Paul II ( la, Ioannes Paulus II; it, Giovanni Paolo II; pl, Jan Paweł II; born Karol Józef Wojtyła ; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 1978 until his ...

Lech Walesa Lech may refer to: People * Lech (name), a name of Polish origin * Lech, the legendary founder of Poland * Lech (Bohemian prince) Products and organizations * Lech (beer), Polish beer produced by Kompania Piwowarska, in Poznań * Lech Pozna� ...

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 Hurler syndrome, also known as mucopolysaccharidosis Type IH (MPS-IH), Hurler's disease, and formerly gargoylism, is a genetic disorder that results in the buildup of large sugar molecules called glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) in lysosomes. The inabil ...

. 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." She was the author of ''Kundun'', the first biography of the

14th Dalai Lama The 14th Dalai Lama (spiritual name Jetsun Jamphel Ngawang Lobsang Yeshe Tenzin Gyatso, known as Tenzin Gyatso (Tibetan: བསྟན་འཛིན་རྒྱ་མཚོ་, Wylie: ''bsTan-'dzin rgya-mtsho''); né Lhamo Thondup), known as ...

to contextualize his story with that of his family members. To write her book about the Chinese occupation of Tibet (''Tears of Blood'' (1992)), she visited several times

Dharamsala Dharamshala (; also spelled Dharamsala) is the winter capital of Himachal Pradesh, India. It serves as administrative headquarters of the Kangra district after being relocated from Kangra, a city located away from Dharamshala, in 1855. Th ...

, home of the 14th Dalai Lama and of the

Central Tibetan Administration The Central Tibetan Administration (, , ), often referred to as the Tibetan Government-in-Exile, is a non-profit political organization based in Dharamshala, India. Its organization is modeled after an elective parliamentary government, comp ...

, 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.Mary Craig, ''Kundun: une biographie du dalaï-lama et de sa famille'', 1998, p. 11-12

Publications

* ''Voices From Silence'', 2010, * ''The Pocket Dalai Lama'', 2002, Shambhala Pubns, * ''His Holiness the Dalai Lama: In My Own Words'', 2001, Hodder & Stoughton, * ''Blessings: A Heartwarming Classic of Hope'', Sorin Books; 2000, * ''Waiting for the sun: the harrowing story of a peasant boy in occupied Tibet'', Hodder & Stoughton, 1999, , * ''Kundun - A Biography of the Family of the Dalai Lama'', 1997, Counterpoint, Washington D.C., * ''The Last Freedom'', Hodder & Stoughton, 1997, * ''Tears of Blood'', HarperCollins, 1992, Counterpoint, 1999, , * ''Lech Walesa : the leader of Solidarity and campaigner for freedom and human rights in Poland'', Exley, 1989, * ''Candles in the dark : six modern martyrs'', Hodder and Stoughton, 1984, * ''The crystal spirit : Lech Wałęsa and his Poland'', Coronet, 1986, * ''Man from a Far Country : A Portrait of Pope John Paul II'', Hodder and Stoughton, 1979, * ''Blessings : an autobiographical fragment'', Morrow, 1979, * ''Longford : a biographical portrait'', Hodder and Stoughton, 1978, 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

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Craig, Mary 1928 births British women journalists British writers Tibetologists 2019 deaths