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My mother, Ruth Silvestre, who has died aged 92, was a cabaret singer in the 1950s and 60s. Later she turned to writing books, including three, known as the Sunflower Trilogy, about the summers she spent away from the UK in the south west of France.
Ruth was born in Basingstoke, Hampshire, to Dorothy (nee Harmsworth), a nanny, and Bill Simmonds, an engineer. A scholarship to Basingstoke high school gave her the good fortune to meet an inspirational music teacher and, as she would later write, “from then on music always seemed as essential as breathing to me”.
Moving to London in 1947, she did teacher training at Goldsmiths College (now Goldsmiths, University of London), where she met Michael Grater, a fellow student, whom she married in 1952. There she also took singing lessons with the former opera singer Catherine Rosser, who became a firm friend.
A singing spot at Balsam’s restaurant in Mayfair was such a success that she decided to concentrate her efforts on cabaret, using the stage name Ruth Silvestre. A regular on the after dinner circuit in the 50s and 60s, she was able to sing in many languages, including Italian, French, Yiddish and Hebrew.
In 1960 she had a small part as a night club singer in the Flower Drum Song musical at the Palace theatre in London, where she was also understudy to one of the main actors, Yama Saki. In 1968 she played the lead role of Aldonza in Man of La Mancha at the Piccadilly. Afterwards she continued with cabaret engagements, seasonal work on cruise ships and occasional stage performances. There were also small roles on TV and in films, including, coincidentally, in Peter Yates’s film version of Man of La Mancha.
Out of the limelight Ruth was generous with her time and talents. She joined Xenia Field’s “Old Lags” prison entertainers, was a trustee of the Cara Aids Trust and gave home schooling to children who had fallen outside the educational system.
In 1976 she and Michael bought a derelict farmhouse in the south-west of France which they restored, and where long summers were shared with an eclectic mix of family, friends and locals. Diaries from this adventure led to the writing of the Sunflower Trilogy: A House in the Sunflowers (1996), Reflections of Sunflowers (2004) and A Harvest of Sunflowers (2010).
Later she wrote a series of children’s books, Tom (1989), The Old Woman Who Lived in a Roundabout (1993), Henry to the Rescue (1994) and the Secret in the Storm (1995), as well as a historical account of the murder of the actor William Terriss (Final Performance, 2009).
Ruth served as a committee member of the Concert Artistes Association and celebrated her 90th birthday at its club with a cabaret dinner, giving a robust performance of Maybe It’s Because I’m a Londoner.
Michael died in 2003. Ruth is survived by her sons – my brother, Matthew, and me – and grandchildren, Thomas and Elliot.
• This article was amended on 16 March 2022, to correct the name of an actor in Flower Drum Song to Yama Saki. An earlier version gave Kama Saki.
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