His debut novella Pobby and Dingan (later filmed as Opal Dream) was awarded the Somerset Maugham Award in 2001 (as well as being shortlisted for the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize), and in 2003 Granta named him as one of their twenty "Best of Young British Novelists".
Other productions include Caged, Pobby and Dingan (TMA 2010 award winner for Best Show for Children and Young People), The Book of Beasts, Something Wicked This Way Comes (with National Theatre of Scotland), The Ballad of Pondlife McGurk, Hansel and Gretel, Kes, The Lion of Kabul, The Book of Beasts, Cyrano, Snow Baby, and The Story of the Little Gentleman.
Set in the opal mining community of Lightning Ridge in New South Wales it tells of the eponymous Pobby and Dingan, imaginary friends of Kellyanne Williamson, sister of Ashmol and daughter of an opal miner.
In the novella Pobby and Dingan by Ben Rice, Kellyanne's two imaginary friends eat nothing but Violet Crumbles, Cherry Ripes and lollies.