To Be a Woman: The Life of Jill Craigie

This biography of the film-maker, writer, and feminist Jill Craigie is an intimate portrait of an influential and charismatic woman. Craigie became the first woman to establish a national reputation in the documentary film field, most notably as a result of her 1944 film, Out of Chaos. After a four-year affair with MP Michael Foot, the couple married in 1949. As the women's movement grew in strength in Britain during the 60s and 70s, Craigie became an inspirational figure for many of its leaders and an active participant in many feminist causes. For this book, Carl Rollyson was given access to the archive in Foot's Hampstead home, which contains Craigie's research notes, drafts of her journalism and scripts, and her correspondence with an array of major historical figures, ranging from prime ministers to writers, film-makers and artists. He interviews Craigie's daughter Julie as well as a range of her surviving friends, and Michael Foot talks with frankness about his marriage, the strains which were placed upon it by his own infidelities, and his pride in having shared the life of so remarkable a woman.