Meeting Ruth Leigh

Wednesday 21st May 2025

I first became aware of Ruth Leigh, writer, editor and general inspirer of other creators of the written word through a friend who was attending a monthly ‘open mic’ type session for developing authors in Woodbridge. Ruth (in her own words), lives in ‘beautiful East Suffolk with three children, one husband, and a cat’¹. Suffolk Book League naturally has an interest in the services available for the development of writers, so I was very pleased when she agreed to be interviewed online.

The first question concerned the support that Ruth offers to writers. She runs creative writing workshops in what she calls the Palace of Creativity (her writing studio in the garden), which can comfortably seat around five people. Here, in half day and full day workshops, she offers help around formatting, cover design, publishing and editing. Writing exercises take place and she signposts people to professionals who might be able to help them. Two-hour consultations are available for aspiring wordsmiths, to help, encourage and support them in the craft.

I asked Ruth how she uses her skills and experience to help writers to develop. She explained that, along with her encouraging personality, she brings the skills of active listening, psychology and well-placed advice, sharing her own story and applying her editing talents when necessary.

Ruth is the author of several quite different strands of writing: her comic novels around the character of Isabella M. Smugge, poetry and her Jane Austen-inspired fiction. She did not enter the scribing world via the now almost ubiquitous creative writing course route; rather she came into it in an unusual way, having loved books as a child. In her own words, ‘I did the usual thing, went to school, loathed it, ran away from home, started again, got married, had some children, did lots of jobs, ended up in Suffolk’. In 2008, after moving to the county, she began her career as a freelance writer in the charity sector which taught her about discipline, word count and focus. She learned not to be offended when a client critiqued her work and her portfolio steadily grew. The freelance work dried up with the first Covid lockdown in 2020. The previous October she had been asked to start contributing to the Association of Christian Writers’ blog and in April 2020, responding to the vast number of smug people who were apparently having perfect lockdown lives, created the character of Isabella M. Smugge (her name spells out ‘I am smug’). This creation was so successful that Ruth then went on to write a novel about Isabella, with three more following and a further two (and counting) in different genres.

In response to my query about interaction with other writers, she agreed that ‘being a writer is a solitary occupation’ and that you spend a lot of time living in your own head.  She advocated interacting with other writers as an antidote to this, mentioning the support she received from the Association of Christian Writers (ACW), with online engagement also playing a big part. Appreciating the different styles of other writers has enormously enhanced her own output.

Until recently, Ruth was curating monthly sessions for writers at 1975 Wine Bar in Woodbridge. These meetings, known as ‘Spoken Word’, gave writers a chance to read from and discuss their works in a warm, welcoming space. The sessions are ongoing on the last Thursday of the month, but Ruth no longer leads them. She also spoke about her role as ambassador for ‘Wild Words’, an analogue writing project devised by the Suffolk Writers’ group. A beautifully decorated post box was hosted by various venues around Suffolk, complete with writing materials, and people would post written offerings in it. This would be followed up by an open meeting to generate stories about various and off-beat subjects: say a cocktail from a cocktail menu.    

In terms of offering words of wisdom, Ruth quoted Stephen King: ‘If you want to be a writer…read a lot and write a lot’. She recommends that people invest in themselves through attendance at events such as workshops and get out there as, ‘you don’t get published by sitting quietly at home’.

Her current projects include editing a magazine, writing a follow-up to her prize winning short story collection about some minor characters in Pride and Prejudice and another Isabella M. Smugge novel. She also has an idea for another book ‘marinating’ away in her mind, based on the accumulated wit and wisdom of an awful lot of blogs. She also attends about 75 promotional type events a year, leaving me to wonder how she fits it all in. Finally, she noted that she benefits from the Public Lending Right (PLR)² scheme whereby authors and other creatives receive remuneration as a result of public library book loans. Ruth emphasises that she won’t be retiring on these sums, namely £28 and £17 over the last two years. Writing is not always a very lucrative trade, despite the celebrity author headlines.

1. Leigh, R. About Ruth Leigh: Ruth Leigh Writes, 2025,  https://www.ruthleighwrites.co.uk/about-ruth-leigh

2. British Library Welcome to Public Lending Right, 2025.  https://www.bl.uk/plr/ 

Janet Bayliss