Ruth Bidgood

Who is Ruth Bidgood?

Ruth Bidgood is a British poet.

She was born at Blaendulais, Seven Sisters, near Neath. Her Welsh-speaking father was a priest in Port Talbot, where Ruth was brought up. She was educated at a grammar school in Port Talbot, and went on to read English at St Hugh's College in the University of Oxford.

During World War II, she served as a Wren as a coder in Egypt, at Alexandria.

After the war she worked in London helping to prepare a new edition of Chambers's Encyclopaedia, but eventually she and her husband moved to Coulsdon in Surrey. She and her husband had two sons and one daughter.

She and her husband bought a bungalow at Abergwesyn, near Llanwrtyd Wells in Powys. In the 1970s she made her home there, and began publishing poetry and researches into local history.

In April 2011 her collection, Time Being, was awarded the Roland Mathias Prize.

A book-length study of Bidgood's work, written by Matthew Jarvis, was published in 2012. The book was launched together with Bidgood's Above the Forests collection at Aberystwyth Arts Centre on July 27, 2012.