Ruth Louise Symes is the author of children's books and TV scripts including several episodes of Channel 4 / Jim Henson Company's series for pre-school children

The Hoobs ''The Hoobs'' is a live-action/animated children's television series created and produced by The Jim Henson Company and Decode Entertainment for Channel Four. Five series of 52 episodes were produced. Concept Channel 4 announced in November 20 ...

, and award-winning animation series PicMe. She has also worked with

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...

as the Writing Coach and Write a Children's Short Story competition Judge on the

Richard & Judy ''Richard & Judy'' (also known as ''Richard & Judy's New Position'') is a British television chat show presented by the married couple Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan. The show originally aired on Channel 4 from 26 November 2001 to 22 Augu ...

show. One of her books ''Mondays at Monster School'' (Orion, 2005) was read on BBC television by

Jenny Seagrove Jennifer Ann Seagrove (born 4 July 1957) is an English actress. She trained at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School and first came to attention playing the lead in a television dramatisation of Barbara Taylor Bradford's '' A Woman of Substance'' ...

as part of the bedtime story hour. Ruth Symes also writes for both adults and children under the pseudonym ''Megan Rix'', with eight novels published by

Puffin Books Puffin Books is a longstanding children's imprint of the British publishers Penguin Books. Since the 1960s, it has been among the largest publishers of children's books in the UK and much of the English-speaking world. The imprint now belongs ...

and an adult memoir published by

Penguin Penguins ( order Sphenisciformes , family Spheniscidae ) are a group of aquatic flightless birds. They live almost exclusively in the Southern Hemisphere: only one species, the Galápagos penguin, is found north of the Equator. Highly adapt ...

's Michael Joseph imprint.

Biography

Raised in Enfield where she attended the

Bishop Stopford's School at Enfield Bishop Stopford's School, commonly known as Bishop Stopford's, or (simply) just Bishop's, is a voluntary aided co-educational secondary school specialising in mathematics, computing and engineering, with a sixth form. It is a London Dioce ...

, Ruth Symes initially taught children with special needs before becoming an author. Her first novel was the Carnegie Medal-nominated ''The Master of Secrets'' published in 1999. Before writing professionally Symes had a variety of jobs, including teaching children with severe learning challenges, both in the UK and

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...

, where she was involved with the South East Asian Special Olympics. Other jobs have included instructing aerobics, acting in a Chinese soap opera and playing the part of Jill Goose in the pantomime

Mother Goose The figure of Mother Goose is the imaginary author of a collection of French fairy tales and later of English nursery rhymes. As a character, she appeared in a song, the first stanza of which often functions now as a nursery rhyme. This, howev ...

. In 2006 she moved to

Kempston Kempston is a town and civil parish in the Borough of Bedford, Bedfordshire, England. It had a population of 19,330 in the 2011 census. Kempston is part of Bedford's built-up area and is situated directly south-west of Bedford proper. The River ...

with her husband Eric Wainwright.

Published works

Novels

* ''The Master of Secrets'' (

; 1997) * ''The Mum Trap'' (Andersen Press ; 2000), which was voted in the top 100 children's books of 2000 * ''Frankie's Romeo'' ( Orion; 2002), which received a PAWS drama award in 2001. * ''Bella Donna: Coven Road'' (Piccadilly Press; 2010) * ''Bella Donna:'' ''Too Many Spells'' (Piccadilly Press; 2011) * ''Bella Donna:'' ''Witchling'' (Piccadilly Press; 2011) * ''Bella Donna:'' ''Cat Magic'' (Piccadilly Press; 2012) * ''Bella Donna:'' ''Witch Camp'' (Piccadilly Press; 2013) * ''Bella Donna:'' ''Bella Bewitched'' (Piccadilly Press; 2013) * ''The Secret Animal Society: Cornflake the Dragon'' (Piccadilly Press; 2014) * ''The Secret Animal Society: Spike the Sea Serpent'' (Piccadilly Press; 2015) * ''The Secret Animal Society: Snowball the Baby Bigfoot'' (Piccadilly Press; 2015)

Picture books

* ''The Sheep Fairy'' (Chicken House ; 2003) * ''Floppy Ears'' (Orion; 2004) * ''Mondays at Monster School'' (Orion; 2005) * ''Harriet Dancing'' (Chicken House; 2008) * ''Little Tail'' (Orion; 2006) * ''Little Rex'' (Piccadilly Press; 2010) * ''Little Rex, Big Brother'' (Piccadilly Press, UK; Albert Whitman and Company, USA; 2010)

Young readers

* ''Play - if you Dar''e * ''The Twelfth Floor Kids'' * ''Chip's Dad'' * ''Smelly Sock Soup'' * ''The Sarah Song''

Radio

* Big Toe Radio Show for

BBC 7 BBC Radio 4 Extra (formerly BBC Radio 7) is a British digital radio station from the BBC, broadcasting archived repeats of comedy, drama and documentary programmes nationally, 24 hours a day. It is the sister station of BBC Radio 4 and the pr ...

* Adapted ''The Sun, Moon and Stars'' for

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of Talk radio, spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history fro ...

Writing as Megan Rix

*''Winston and the Marmalade Cat'' *''The Great Fire Dogs'' *''Echo Come Home'' *''The Great Escape'' *''The Victory Dogs'' *''The Bomber Dog'' *'' A Soldier's Friend'' *''The Runaways'' *''The Hero Pup'' *''The Puppy That Came For Christmas''

References

External links

Official site

Ruth's biography on Chicken House website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Symes, Ruth English children's writers 1962 births Living people People from Enfield, London People educated at Bishop Stopford's School at Enfield English women novelists