Ronald Ridout (July 23, 1916 - December 5, 1994) was a prolific English writer of school textbooks. His textbooks include the series
English Today.
Quotations
"What we must do is to steer between these two extremes and develop a way of speaking that most effectively expresses what we want to say. We want a speech that will do its job well. Everything that does its job well has a beauty of its own. Hence we talk of a beautiful runner, a beautiful dancer, a beautiful engine. They all have functional beauty, the beauty of functioning perfectly, the beauty of being perfectly suited to the job they have to do. So with speech: we want an instrument that is beautiful, not because it puts on decorative airs, but because it does its work beautifully, perfectly."
From
English Today, Ronald Ridout, Ginn & Company, 1947, pp 111—112
(selected bibliography)
A. to Z. of English, (with Michael Tristram, Neil Straker and Timothy Jaques), Collins - ISBN 0246127074Better English (1961) Ginn & Company, (reprinted 2000 by Heinemann ISBN 0602202434)Book for Me to Read (with Ruth Ainsworth), Series, Purnell BancroftChildren's Dictionary (1983) Collins ISBN 0246122374English Now, Books 1 - 5, Ginn & CompanyEnglish Today, Books 1 - 5 (1947), Ginn & CompanyEnglish Workbooks, Books 1 - 8, Ginn & CompanyEnglish Workbooks for the Caribbean, Books 1 - 8, (1968) Ginn & CompanyEvans Graded Verse (with Michael Knight) (1978), Evans Bros. ISBN 023750202XFacts of English (with Clifford Witting) (1973) Macmillan Publishers ISBN 0330235346Getting on with Dividing (with Michael Holt and Jon Miller) (1986) Collins ISBN 0001973355Getting on with Mathematics (with Michael Holt and Jon Miller) (1986) CollinsGetting on with Multiplying (with Michael Holt and Jon Miller) (1986), Collins ISBN 0001973347Getting on with Spelling, Series, (with Michael Holt and Leon Baxter), (1986), CollinsThe Life Cycle of Cats (with Michael Holt), illustrated by Tony Payne. Grosset & Dunlap, (1974)The Macmillan Dictionary of English Proverbs Explained (with Clifford Witting), Macmillan PublishersNow I Can Spell (with Michael Holt) (1987) Collins ISBN 0001974319Now I Can Take Away (1985), Collins ISBN 0001971387Now I Can Write, Series, (with Michael Holt) (1987), CollinsPicture Words (1975), Collins ISBN 0583302114Ridout pocket spelling dictionary (1979) Ginn & Company ISBN 0602223709Self Help English, Macmillan Publishers - ISBN 0333001818Word Perfect Spelling Books (with George Adamson), Books 1 - 8, Oxford University PressWrite in English, Books 1 - 8, (1974) Ginn & Company