Ruth Starke has worked in public relations and travel marketing, and at a great variety of other jobs - of which the most interesting, she says, were selling French perfume in Harrods, cooking on the radio, taking tourists to Kashmir, and interviewing Grand Prix drivers.Ruth lives in Adelaide where she teaches English at Flinders University and creative writing at TAFE. She reviews for Viewpoint and Australian Book Review magazines, has been a judge for the National Festival Awards for Children's Literature since 1995, and is deputy chair of the South Australian Writers' Centre.