Skip to content

Scottish Poetry Library

Register/Sign in
Shopping Bag Shopping Bag
Bringing people and poems together
  • Home
  • Poetry
    • Poets
    • Poems
    • Makar – National Poet
      • Our Waking Breath: A Poem-letter from Scotland to Ukraine
      • A Woman’s A Woman
      • The story of the Makar – National Poet of Scotland
    • Best Scottish Poems
    • Spiorad an Àite
      Spirit of Place
    • The Trysting Thorns
    • Poetry Ambassadors
      Tosgairean na Bàrdachd
      • Poetry Commissions: Walter Scott 250
        Coimiseanan Bàrdachd: Walter Scott 250
      • Poetry Ambassadors 2021
    • Poetry Ambassadors 2020
    • Posters
    • Podcasts
  • Library
    • Become a borrower
    • Catalogue
    • Collections
    • Ask a librarian
    • Copyright enquiries
  • Learning
    • SQA set texts
    • Learning resources
    • Designing sensory poetry activities
    • Children’s poems in Scots
    • National Poetry Day archive
    • New to poetry?
    • Advice for poets
  • Events
    • What’s On
    • Meeting rooms and venue hire
    • Exhibitions
  • Shop
    • Poetry Highlights
    • Entropie Books
    • Stichill Marigold Press
    • Poems for Doctors, Nurses & Teachers
    • Scottish Poetry
    • Poetry Pamphlet Cards
    • Help
  • About us
    • Our story
    • Our people
    • Company Papers & Policies
    • Our projects
    • Our building
    • FAQs
    • Find us
  • Support us
    • Become a Friend
    • Donate
  • Blog
Shopping BagShopping Bag
Ask a librarian
  • Home
  • >
  • Poetry
  • >
  • Poets
  • >
  • Ruth Padel
Donate Donate icon Ask a Librarian Ask a Librarian icon

Ruth Padel

b.1946

POEMS

Ruth Padel is a poet, prose-writer, critic and broadcaster based in London. Fittingly, with great-great-grandparents including a concert pianist and Charles Darwin, her interests encompass zoology, natural history and travel, as well as music and classical Greek. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.

Her first collection of poetry was the pamphlet Alibi (1985); subsequent collections include The Soho Leopard (2004), Darwin: a life in Poems (Vintage, 2010) and The Mara Crossing – poems and prose on migration (Chatto & Windus, 2012).

Her non-fiction includes the collection of her Independent articles on reading individual poems, 52 Ways of Looking At A Poem (2002), and The Poem and the Journey (2007).

Read more

Read the poems

  • The Soho Leopard

Further Information

Ruth Padel

Share this
Facebook
Twitter
Email
  • Newsletter signup
  • Accessibility
  • Terms & Conditions
  • Privacy Policy
Scottish Poetry Library
5 Crichton's Close, Canongate
Edinburgh EH8 8DT
Tel: +44 (0)131 557 2876
© Scottish Poetry Library 2022.
The Scottish Poetry Library is a registered charity (No. SCO23311).
City of Edinburgh logo Green Arts Initiative logo Creative Scotland logo
Scottish Poetry Library