Amanda Craig is a British novelist, short-story writer and critic. Born in South Africa in 1959, she grew up in Italy, where her parents worked for the UN, and was educated at Bedales School and Clare College Cambridge. She was the children’s critic for The Independent on Sunday and The Times, and one of the first to spot the Harry Potter books, Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials, Twilight, How to Train Your Dragon and The Hunger Games. She is regarded as a state of the nation novelist, commenting on the gulf between rich and poor.