Ruth Starke lives in Adelaide, where she teaches English at Flinders University and creative writing at TAFE. She has worked in public relations and travel marketing, and at a great variety of other jobs, including selling French perfume in Harrods, cooking on the radio, taking tourists to Kashmir, and interviewing Grand Prix drivers.
Ruth turned to fiction writing in 1992 and has written over a dozen novels for young people. Her best-selling NIPS XI was named an Honour Book in the Younger Readers category of the 2001 CBC Awards, and Stella by the Sea was shortlisted for the same award in 2004.
Ruth’s latest book is Orphans of the Queen, the story of a brother and sister sent from England to Australia in the 1950s. | 
