Ruth Marden, who lives in Salisbury, is a retired English teacher. Her early career gave her the opportunity to work first in Switzerland and later in Greece, where she spent over nine years and which she still regards as her second home.

Apart from eager bursts of literary activity in childhood, she didn’t start writing until her forties, when one evening in the midst of marking and lesson preparation, she suddenly ‘answered’ a poem by Thomas Hardy.

Since then her work has appeared in a number of UK magazines, including Acumen, Smiths Knoll, South, Assent and The Interpreter’s House.

She has been helped and encouraged by participation in classes and poetry groups in Southampton, Salisbury and farther afield.

Publications:

The Little Jockey, HappenStance 2014