Ruth Padel

An award-winning British poet, she has close links to Greece, science, classical music and wildlife conservation, especially in India. She has published twelve poetry collections and has been shortlisted for major UK prizes. Her non-fiction includes books on reading poetry drawn from her newspaper column The Sunday Poem; a memoir focussing on wild tiger conservation wild tiger conservation, and studies of Greek tragedy and myth. Her first novel featured wildlife conservation in Devon and India; her second was set on the island of Crete, where she has lived on and off most of her life.

She is a Fellow of both the Zoological Society of London and Royal Society of Literature. Awards include First Prize in the National Poetry Competition, a British Council Darwin Now Award, and a Cholmondley Prize. Among her recent books are a poetry collection/biography Beethoven Variations, and the novel Daughters of the Labyrinth.