John Cragg was born and brought up in Lancashire, England. He later studied at Oxford University where he graduated with an M.A. degree in 1964, the year the Beatles and other iconic musicians burst upon the northern and then national music scene. He regards that year as crucial for his own cultural “growing up” and the overall maturity of modern Britain.
John then had little time for being an author during a busy career as a lawyer but kept his writing alive by producing many short stories. Later, in 2017, he was able to publish his first novel ‘Athlingwold.’ This reflected his interest in British social history, legends and related matters. John believes these are helpful and relevant today; we can only understand life’s complicated journey if we know something of where we have travelled from.
History also repeats itself cyclically, even if in different guises. These ideas led John to return to Oxford University in 2004 for a part time course of studies leading to an undergraduate Diploma in English Local History, He has also written screenplays for short films, one of these (“Nasty Ned”) also being available on Amazon.
He is currently working on a collection of short stories with diverse subject matter. A novella, set around the adventures of a northern ironmaster’s family in the eighteenth century iron industry, is also on the way. But John never forgets that whatever he chooses as subject matter for his stories the overriding consideration must be to attract and hold the reader’s interest from first word to last.