Ruth Cowen

Ruth Cowen is an award-winning author, journalist, broadcaster, editor and speaker. Her work has appeared regularly in newspapers and magazines including The Guardian, The Telegraph and the Sunday Times. She has written and presented a number of documentaries for BBC Radio 4 and appeared on many TV programmes.

Her first book Relish: The Extraordinary Story of Alexis Soyer, Victorian Celebrity Chef, was published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson in 2007. Relish was awarded The Jeremy Round First Book Award and The Guild of Food Writers Book of the Year, and was a finalist for The Glenfiddich Award and The Irish Book Awards. Relish was republished by Orion in May 2018.

Ruth is also an experienced editor. In March 2013 she edited A Nurse at the Front (Simon & Schuster and the IWM) and has worked on many other books, including the ground-breaking Forgotten Voices series by Max Arthur. Her 2016 audiobook Elizabeth II: Life of a Monarch, starring Tim Pigott-Smith and Lindsay Duncan, reached number 8 in the global Audible charts.

Ruth also enjoys public speaking, and in 2015 gave a four-week lecture course on Gastronomic History at The Victoria & Albert Museum.