Ruth Derham

A former health practitioner and university lecturer, Ruth Derham fulfilled a long ambition to write with the publication of Bertrand's Brother in 2021. She now dedicates herself to writing full-time and has a particular interest in changing attitudes to marriage and divorce. Ruth has written papers for and delivered talks to the Bertrand Russell, George Santayana and the H.G. Wells Societies on aspects of Frank Russell's life and career and the role he played in divorce law reform. Her recent releases are 'The Complete Winchester Letters of Lionel Johnson' (ed. with Sarah Green, March 2024) and 'Decadent Divorce: Scandal and Sensation in Victorian Britain' (May 2024). Ruth will be delivering a paper on past and present systems of divorce at the BAVS annual conference in September and is current researching the life of Virginia Mary Crawford, social-worker, journalist, literary critic and the woman at the heart of the infamous Crawford-Dilke Scandal of 1886.