Mrs America, not forgetting Ms and Miss

August 6, 2020

I’ve been watching a fantastic programme on iPlayer. Starring Cate Blanchett, Rose Byrne, Tracey Ullmann, Sarah Paulson, Jeanne Trippelhorn, Uzo Aduba, Elizabeth Banks, Margo Martindale, Kayli Carter and Ari Graynor, "Mrs America" opened my eyes to a period of history I knew shamefully little about.

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Reviews Archive

December 2025
- Dec 3, 2025 Messy Glory: A Chat With Liz Carter
October 2025
- Oct 7, 2025 Janet's Back
November 2024
- Nov 23, 2024 Stranger in a Strange Land
October 2024
- Oct 3, 2024 On the Path with Carolyn
November 2023
- Nov 17, 2023 Here Comes the Bride. Ruth reviews Joy Margett's latest book, The Bride.
- Nov 13, 2023 A Peach of a Book: Charlie Peach’s Pumpkins and Other Stories
October 2023
- Oct 21, 2023 Branching Out: An Advent Chat with Rachel Yarworth
June 2023
- Jun 7, 2023 The True Meaning of Value. Ruth interviews author Liz Carter
May 2023
- May 18, 2023 Crowned with History: A Chat with Author Claire Dunn
March 2023
- Mar 19, 2023 Secrets and Redemption: The Dangerous Dance of Emma JJ
February 2023
- Feb 25, 2023 Becoming Queen Bathsheba: A Tale of Murder, Loss and Redemption
- Feb 6, 2023 Beneath the Tamarisk Tree: Light and Shade
January 2023
- Jan 27, 2023 An Extraordinary Ordinary Story
December 2022
- Dec 4, 2022 A Game of Two Halves: The Wanderer Reborn
November 2022
- Nov 22, 2022 Contemplating Christmas – An Advent Resource. Ruth interviews Abby Ball
August 2022
- Aug 11, 2022 East of Eden: An Everyday Story of Biblical Folk
July 2022
- Jul 11, 2022 The Pilgrim’s Path: The Prequel to The Healing by Joy Margetts
June 2022
- Jun 29, 2022 Funny Ha Ha. Ruth on Sophie Neville's Funnily Enough
May 2022
- May 30, 2022 The Magnificent Moustache and Beyond: A Collection of Children’s Stories
- May 9, 2022 A Wander Round Warwickshire
April 2022
- Apr 11, 2022 A Creator of Worlds: Maressa Mortimer’s “Burrowed”
- Apr 5, 2022 A Nice Cup of Tea and a Good Read
March 2022
- Mar 11, 2022 The Wounds of Time: A Tangled Web
February 2022
- Feb 28, 2022 Beneath the Tamarisk Tree: Light and Shade
- Feb 21, 2022 All Things New: Inspiring Stories from Matt McChlery
- Feb 10, 2022 From Earth to Heaven
January 2022
- Jan 24, 2022 Finding Truth and Identity: A Review of “Like Him” by Julia Stevens
November 2021
- Nov 23, 2021 Sourcing the Good Stuff: Poppy Denby and the Crystal Crypt
August 2021
- Aug 4, 2021 All Aboard for a Murder or Two: The Shetland Sea Murders by Marsali Taylor
July 2021
- Jul 22, 2021 Terrific Tartan Noir: Unravelling
- Jul 15, 2021 Scent of Water: One woman's journey through grief
May 2021
- May 13, 2021 Leah + Rachel + Jacob + Esau (Gamora + Nebula)
April 2021
- Apr 20, 2021 Two by Two: A Review of “Not Knowing but Still Going” by Jocelyn-Anne Harvey
March 2021
- Mar 15, 2021 A chat with Joy Margetts

Ruth leigh BLOGS

Featured

August 17, 2026

Having Your Cake and Eating It

August 17, 2026

I spent the first eighteen years of my life in an Essex village. Everyone knew everyone. In the graveyard at St Mary’s church on one side of the village green, the same names appeared on the gravestones. On the other side, the Baptist Church (still referred to as the Chapel by many of the older residents) had replaced the original tabernacle in the Sixties, but when I was little, child-related activities were held in what was essentially a hut on stilts.

August 17, 2026

July 8, 2026

Back to School

July 8, 2026

Sometimes I hear people saying that their school days were the best of their lives and I always think, “Really? Those were your happy times? Being put into an institution with a bunch of random people and being made to follow rules you had no control over?”

July 8, 2026

June 5, 2026

Flushed With Success

June 5, 2026

One of the most common questions asked of authors is this:

“Where do you get your ideas from?”

From my actual life, is the answer.

When all my children were still at primary school, I helped to run an ambitious Christingle. We had around twenty-five angels of varying sizes, seven Wise Men, eight shepherds, an innkeeper and the Holy Family, comprising Mary and Joseph plus the Baby Jesus played by somebody’s doll. At the dress rehearsal, there was a punch-up between the innkeeper and one of the shepherds. Central Casting (me) had forgotten that they loathed each other. A wrangler was appointed for each people group to ensure there was no recurrence of violence. Nits broke out amongst the heavenly host. There was a lot of scratching.

June 5, 2026

April 22, 2026

The Writer's Life

April 22, 2026

April is one of my favourite months for several reasons. It’s Mr Leigh’s birthday, the bluebell wood next door bursts into bloom with its intensely blue fragrant carpet, daffodils are over, camellias are on their last gasp, but the wisteria is starting to come out as are leaves on the trees and the forget-me-nots which I definitely didn’t plant last year. 7th April is the anniversary of the creation of Isabella M Smugge and reminds me of that moment when a ludicrously self-satisfied woman with everything money could buy sprang into my mind and started off my fiction career.

April 22, 2026

March 13, 2026

Don't Get Involved

March 13, 2026

Since I became a fiction writer, I’ve been privileged to go and help with Year Nine and Ten Careers Days around Suffolk, to give talks on World Book Day and to deliver inspirational workshops. What, you might be asking, has a woman in her riper years got to say to a bunch of GenZs who know more about technology than she ever will, who are inheriting an earth which looks entirely different to the one she inhabited at fourteen and fifteen and who, we must hope, will make decisions as adults that mean that love wins over hate and compassion over greed.

March 13, 2026

February 17, 2026

No Call for Buckets

February 17, 2026

Back in 2001, along with much of the rest of the UK population, I started watching a new kind of television show. It purported to be a documentary, set in a fairly ordinary, Slough-based company. The camera lingered too long on participants’ awkward expressions, it picked up whispered conversations which weren’t meant for public consumption and it kicked off one of the most hotly debated, “Will they, won’t they?” office relationships in the shape of Tim and Dawn.

February 17, 2026

January 23, 2026

A Good Clear Out

January 23, 2026

This month marks the fifth birthday of the publication of my first novel, The Diary of Isabella M Smugge. I made her up as a joke for a blog I wrote in April 2020, sick of people on Instagram banging on about baking banana bread, living their best lives, making memories and doing Joe Wicks every morning. There was a point when I was publishing four blogs a month. I was rarely stuck for ideas. Fifty-four years of life experience and obsessive reading had filled up the header tank in my brain to the very brim.

January 23, 2026

December 12, 2025

On What I Hate I Feed Not: Or The Strange Case of the Medlars

December 12, 2025

Welcome back to the Ruth Leigh Writes blog! If you’re reading this, it’s because you subscribed (thank you), you follow me on the socials, you read my books or we’ve met at an event. However you know me, it’s good to have you along.

December 12, 2025

July 21, 2025

July Newsletter (2025)

July 21, 2025

Newsletter Time! Sparkles, School Talks and Colin’s Antics
Welcome to this month’s round-up from your friendly neighbourhood author (that’s me, Ruth Leigh). I’ve finally handed over My Own Darling Child for editing—yes, it’s happening—and I’m already plotting the next book with some familiar Issy Smugge flavour stirred in. Between literary festivals, creative writing workshops, school visits and the ongoing adventures of Colin (who is, once again, upright and adored), it’s been a joyful whirlwind. There’s even a surprise book review and a chance to meet me (and possibly Colin) in person. Pop the kettle on and have a read…

July 21, 2025

April 21, 2023

Peaks and Troughs

April 21, 2023

I’m back! It’s been a while since I wrote anything for my own blog. I’ve been busy writing the three Isabella M Smugge books, my first collection of Jane Austen short stories (I’ll tell you about that in the next blog) and generally throwing myself headfirst into the life of a full time writer. Back at the end of 2021 when I considered what that would look like, I visualised days full of ideas and creativity, books selling in huge numbers, people coming up to me in the street and murmuring, “Aren’t you – Ruth Leigh?” Lots of fun stuff has happened and it’s been great, but glamorous it ain’t.

April 21, 2023

October 10, 2022

Andy Chamberlain interviews Ruth Leigh as part of the blog tour for The Continued Times of Isabella M Smugge

October 10, 2022

Writer, Andy Chamberlain, interviews Ruth Leigh as part of the blog tour for The Continued Times of Isabella M Smugge.

October 10, 2022

September 19, 2022

Creating a World: Hashtags, Selfies and Self-Plumping Pillows

September 19, 2022

It’s been quite a while since I published anything on here. In my defence, I have been quite busy, writing novels (three published in eighteen months), doing my freelance work and keeping the family alive. But you know, it’s time! It really is. These days, all the evidence points to me being a Proper Writer.

September 19, 2022

May 9, 2022

Happy Second Anniversary, Isabella!

May 9, 2022

Just for a laugh, I made up a woman who was the complete opposite of me. Rich, posh, skinny with an agent and a publisher and a gorgeous Grade II listed house. Out it went in April and got good comments. On 7th May, I wrote about her again and to my utter amazement received the following message from Tony Collins, a literary agent.

May 9, 2022

February 24, 2022

And She's Off!

February 24, 2022

The online book launch for the Trials of Isabella M Smugge. Back in the day (by which I mean when we didn’t routinely wear masks and bandy terms like, “LFT” and “PCR test” around), authors, what had written books, would have book launches. These would take place in bookshops, or pubs, or libraries, they tell me. Lots of people would come, buy their signed copy, listen to the author speak and sip fizz and nibble canapes. It was all jolly good fun, apparently.

February 24, 2022

January 14, 2022

No More Eeros Anymore

January 14, 2022

Simple elements of modern life, which everyone else takes for granted, pass the Leigh household by. Suffolk isn’t known for its fast internet speeds, and that’s fine. If I wanted super-duper all-singing all-dancing full-fat broadband I’d have stayed in Essex. However, even by the county’s standards, out here it’s lamentable. It drops out at least twice a week. Even when we upgraded to the Very Posh Router it still disappeared from time to time, waiting until I was up against a deadline and then deciding to go off and do something else.

January 14, 2022

December 20, 2021

#shoplocal

December 20, 2021

Only a few days till Christmas. How did that happen? It seems like yesterday that we were struggling through yet another lockdown, unsure of what the future would bring. It’s been quite a year. Queues at petrol stations, new Covid variants, Christmas parties that happened, then didn’t happen, then probably did happen but it was OK because everyone stuck to the guidelines and they were really, really tired with running the country and all, so they deserved to let their hair down.

December 20, 2021

November 18, 2021

Shameful is the head that wears the crown

November 18, 2021

A lifelong Guardian reader, I followed the links my friend sent me. The embers blazed up into those old familiar flames as I read about the shameful part the then Foreign Secretary (our current PM, bless his fluffy little blond noggin) had played in Nazanin’s incarceration. Anger grew in my heart as I did the background research I should have done when this story made headline news the first time around.

November 18, 2021

November 10, 2021

Isabella Smugge says #challengeaccepted Part Two

November 10, 2021

PART TWO - I love a challenge and so does my heroine, insanely successful lifestyle blogger Isabella M Smugge. Some kind person (I know not who) came up with a book challenge, helpfully named #31daysofoctoberchallenge. The idea is that you post every day on your socials with that hashtag, in whatever style you like. Top mate and writer Wendy H Jones alerted me to the challenge – thanks Wendy!

November 10, 2021

November 3, 2021

Isabella Smugge says #challengeaccepted Part One

November 3, 2021

I love a challenge and so does my heroine, insanely successful lifestyle blogger Isabella M Smugge. Some kind person (I know not who) came up with a book challenge, helpfully named #31daysofoctoberchallenge. The idea is that you post every day on your socials with that hashtag, in whatever style you like. Top mate and writer Wendy H Jones alerted me to the challenge – thanks Wendy!

So for every day in October, I celebrated a National Day and look at how it ties with Isabella’s world. Welcome to the ride!

November 3, 2021

October 21, 2021

Trials, Tribulations and Hashtags

October 21, 2021

“You never have to change anything you got up in the middle of the night to write.” These wise words are ascribed to Saul Bellow, a multi-award-winning man of letters and general Very Clever Chap, and if he thinks it’s true, it probably is.

October 21, 2021

September 30, 2021

Hashtag Heaven Winners Announced!

September 30, 2021

With Hashtag Heaven, Ruth Leigh invited her readers and viewers to think of a hashtag Issy might use in her next adventure. The winning hashtags feature in the trials of Isabella M Smugge (now available to order) and their creators also make an appearance in the book.

September 30, 2021

September 24, 2021

Issy Rides Again

September 24, 2021

It’s been a while since I wrote a blog for my own website. My staggeringly successful creation, top lifestyle blogger and mumfluencer Isabella M Smugge would be horrified and her recently Botoxed agent Mimi Stanhope would be apoplectic with rage. I hope you, dear readers, will overlook this silence as I have been rather busy getting Issy’s continued adventures down on paper.

September 24, 2021

August 13, 2021

Book Cover Reveal for The Trials of Isabella M Smugge

August 13, 2021

Here, at last, is the long-awaited book cover, the sequel to Isabella's adventures, the trials of Isabella M Smugge. You can get your hands on a signed first edition in late September if you sign up here on my website (below), or get it in all good bookshops and on Amazon in early October.

August 13, 2021

August 10, 2021

Island Life

August 10, 2021

Nearly sixty years ago, two people decided to go away on holiday. Both were in their thirties, both single, and both had decided that they were never going to meet “The One” so might as well resign themselves to the single life. They travelled to Shetland, the archipelago flung out into the sea, nearer Norway than Scotland. In the guest house, the woman noticed a good-looking man glancing across at her. Whichever trip she booked up, he would be at her elbow, chatting. By the end of the week, they were going out and two years later they got married. They were my parents (pictured above in 2008). Without Shetland, I wouldn’t be here, so it seemed appropriate to have a family holiday there this summer.

August 10, 2021

June 24, 2021

From Pawnee to Bloomington: Indiana Stories

June 24, 2021

And that’s how we find ourselves in the fine state of Indiana. One of my favourite films is set there (Breaking Away), as are two of my favourite TV shows (Parks & Recreation and Stranger Things). Watching the Parks and Recreation Department of fictional Indiana town Pawnee (America’s fourth fattest town!) I started musing about the state…

June 24, 2021

June 10, 2021

In Which Ruth Wields a Lance

June 10, 2021

Do you ever find yourself writing a word or phrase then looking at it as if it were the first time you’d ever encountered it? Every so often, I’ll write that something is full to the gunwales and think, ‘Heck, I need to know exactly what that means and look it up. (It’s a nautical term referring to the upper edge or planking of the side of a boat). I was reading a novel not that long ago, traditionally published by someone quite famous and it was spelt as gunnals. Which made me very cross because I am such a pedant.

June 10, 2021

April 21, 2021

A Tale of Two Extraordinary Gentlemen

April 21, 2021

I read nearly everything in the paper and the supplements and over the past few weeks, two stories have leapt out and smacked me between the eyes. They were fascinating, surprising and gave me a window into someone else’s world. Here they are. I hope you enjoy them.

April 21, 2021

April 8, 2021

The Rational Elasticated Waist Movement

April 8, 2021

I sit here, in my draughty Victorian house, at a mid-19th century kneehole walnut desk, writing. The room in which I sit was built in 1892, its only heating an open fire. My feet rest on the original red tiles and my little writing nook is nestled in the corner of the room, by an exposed brick wall.

April 8, 2021

March 25, 2021

Half the World is Saying This

March 25, 2021

I’ve asked myself the question “What is writing for?” on a number of occasions since I started blogging. Most of the time, for me at least, it’s to entertain and amuse. I love making people laugh and let’s be honest, for the last year, laughter has been needed more than ever. From time to time, however, I find myself sitting here angry, incensed, burning with a desire to make a change with my words. Today is one of those days.

March 25, 2021

February 18, 2021

Jane and me

February 18, 2021

It is a fact universally acknowledged that Jane Austen is a genius in a bonnet. If you disagree or would like to start a fight (Austen-related only, if you’d be so kind), please indicate your intentions in the comments. Otherwise, let me take up my pen and a sheet of hot-pressed paper and commence.

February 18, 2021

Big Words And Made Up Stories

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