Biography
Craig was born and grew up in North London, where he attended University College School. He went on to study philosophy at Emmanuel College, Cambridge where he wrote and composed music for the Cambridge Footlights. In his final year at university he was head-hunted by Shell Oil but in the same week was offered a job composing a musical for the London stage. He turned down Shell to pursue a career in music, composing scores for theatre and TV productions.
In 2002 he provided the score for Told You So, a musical adaptation of Aesop's fables, with book and lyrics by John Finnemore, but in 2003 he moved away from the theatre to write pop material and to perform as a singer-songwriter and jazz musician, after having a heart attack from the stress of working with lots of actors at once.
In the same year he started work on his first novel, a thriller for children and young adults, and in 2004 he signed a two-book deal with HarperCollins Children's Books. His first book was one of the biggest selling children's book debuts of 2005 in the UK.
In 2008, he married broadcaster Mary Ann Ochota.
Read more about this topic: Joe Craig
Famous quotes containing the word biography:
“As we approached the log house,... the projecting ends of the logs lapping over each other irregularly several feet at the corners gave it a very rich and picturesque look, far removed from the meanness of weather-boards. It was a very spacious, low building, about eighty feet long, with many large apartments ... a style of architecture not described by Vitruvius, I suspect, though possibly hinted at in the biography of Orpheus.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“There never was a good biography of a good novelist. There couldn’t be. He is too many people, if he’s any good.”
—F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940)
“Just how difficult it is to write biography can be reckoned by anybody who sits down and considers just how many people know the real truth about his or her love affairs.”
—Rebecca West (1892–1983)