Ruth Bidgood (née Jones; 20 July 1922 – 4 March 2022) was a Welsh poet and local historian who wrote in English.

Life and career

Ruth Jones was born at Blaendulais, Seven Sisters,[1] near Neath, Wales, on 20 July 1922. Her mother, the former Hilda Garrett, was a teacher.[2] Bidgood's Welsh-speaking father, Rev William Herbert Jones, became vicar of St Mary's Church, Aberavon,[3] where Ruth was brought up. She was educated at a grammar school in Port Talbot, and went on to read English at St Hugh's College, Oxford.[3] During World War II, she served in the Wrens as a coder, at Alexandria in Egypt.[4]

After the war, Bidgood worked in London helping to prepare a new edition of Chambers's Encyclopaedia,[5] but eventually she and her husband, David Bidgood, whom she had married in 1946,[2] moved to Coulsdon in Surrey.[3] She and her husband had two sons and one daughter, Janet (died 2007).[2]

Bidgood and her husband bought a holiday bungalow at Abergwesyn, near Llanwrtyd Wells in Powys.[5] During the 1960s, she became concerned about the construction of reservoirs and introduction of forestries in mid Wales, which she felt adversely affected the life of the region; this influenced her 1970 collection, The Zombie-Makers.[6] In the 1970s, after her husband had left her,[2] she made her home permanently at the bungalow, and began publishing poetry and researches into local history.

Bidgood died at Bryn Gwy residential home in Rhayader, on 4 March 2022, at the age of 99.[7][8]

Collections

In April 2011 her collection, Time Being, was awarded the Roland Mathias Prize.[9]

A book-length study of Bidgood's work, written by Matthew Jarvis, was published in 2012 by the University of Wales Press in the "Writers of Wales" series.[10] The book was launched together with Bidgood's Above the Forests collection at Aberystwyth Arts Centre on 27 July 2012.

Works

  • The Given Time, 1972
  • Seven articles in Transactions of the Radnorshire Society, (1974–1980) on Llandewi Hall
  • Not Without Homage, 1975
  • The Print of Miracle, 1978
  • Lighting Candles, 1982
  • Kindred, 1986
  • The Fluent Moment, 1996
  • Abergwesyn: Bwlch y Ddau Faen (1997). Newtown, Powys: Gwasg Gregynog. ISBN 0-948714-72-7
  • Singing to Wolves, 2000
  • Parishes of the Buzzard, a local history of Abergwesyn
  • New and Selected Poems, 2004
  • Symbols of Plenty, 2006
  • Hearing Voices, 2008
  • Time Being, 2009
  • Above the Forests, 2012

Sources

  1. ↑ Poetry Wales. C. Davies. 1992. p. 73.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Merryn Williams (8 April 2022). "Ruth Bidgood obituary". The Guardian. Retrieved 25 June 2022.
  3. 1 2 3 "Welsh poet and local historian receives Honorary Fellowship". Aberystwyth University. 17 July 2019. Retrieved 14 March 2022.
  4. ↑ "Ruth Bidgood". Seren Books. Retrieved 22 July 2019.
  5. 1 2 "Ruth Bidgood Obituary". Seren Books. Retrieved 14 March 2022.
  6. ↑ Jane Aaron (2013). Welsh Gothic. University of Wales Press. p. 135. ISBN 978-1-78316-559-9.
  7. ↑ Gower, Jon (7 March 2022). "Beautiful Hieroglyphs: A Tribute to Ruth Bidgood". Nation Cymru. Retrieved 7 March 2022.
  8. ↑ "Ruth Bidgood Obituary". Seren Books. 8 March 2022. Retrieved 8 March 2022.
  9. ↑ 'Veteran poet Ruth Bidgood wins Roland Mathias Prize', BBC Wales, 9 April 2012> Retrieved 2012-10-31.
  10. ↑ Matthew Jarvis (15 June 2012). Ruth Bidgood. University of Wales Press. ISBN 978-0-7083-2523-0.
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