Collection: Craig Higginson
Craig Higginson was born in
Harare,
Zimbabwe, in 1971 (formerly Salisbury, Rhodesia). Due to the escalating situation during the
Rhodesian Bush War, he moved with his mother and sister to
Johannesburg in 1976, the year of the
Soweto Uprisings. At the age of ten, he attended boarding school in
KwaZulu-Natal at
Clifton Nottingham Road and
Michaelhouse. The
Midlands landscape would later feature strongly in his novels and plays. In 1990, in the weeks that saw the release of
Nelson Mandela from jail and the unbanning of the
African National Congress, Higginson went to the
University of the Witwatersrand to study Fine Art, but later moved to a BA (Honors) in English and European Literature. In 1995, he worked as assistant to the director
Barney Simon at the
Market Theatre. Following Simon's death, he moved to England, where he would remain for ten years. There he worked at the
Young Vic Theatre with
Tim Supple and at the
Royal Shakespeare Company with
Michael Attenborough. He was also a theatre critic for some years at
Time Out magazine. He published his first novel,
Embodied Laughter, at the age of twenty-six in South Africa and England
and adapted
Laughter in the Dark for the Royal Shakespeare Company and
BBC Radio 3 shortly afterwards. He returned to live and work in
South Africa in 2004.
Since then Higginson has taught at the University of the Witwatersrand and been the Literary Manager of the Market Theatre. He has published several novels and plays and worked extensively in South African television as a writer. He has a PhD in Creative Writing and is married to the actress Leila Henriques. They live in Johannesburg