Britain’s First Banana

Ruth Padel’s ten collections include Darwin: A Life in Poems (Knopf 2009), shortlisted for UK’s Costa Book Award, on her great-great grandfather Charles Darwin; The Mara Crossing (Random House UK); On Migration: Dangerous Journeys and the Living World (Counterpoint Press 2014); Learning to Make an Oud in Nazareth, shortlisted for 2014 T. S. Eliot Prize. Her prose work includes Tigers in Red Weather: A Quest for the Last Wild Tigers (Walker Books 2005); awards include British Council’s Darwin Now Fellowship for her novel Where the Serpent Lives, and first prize in UK’s National Poetry Competition. She is Professor of Poetry, King’s College London, and Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. www.ruthpadel.com