Clare Bell (born 1952) is an author in the U.S. best known for her Ratha series of young adult fantasy novels about prehistoric big cats. These books, also called the Named series, are about intelligent self-aware large cats who have puma, cheetah and lion characteristics, and are based on fossil creatures who are ancestors of the saber-tooth cat.

The first book in the series, Ratha's Creature appeared in 1983. The flap copy on the paperback re-issue of Clan Ground (the second book in the series which appeared in 1984) states that Bell: Readers who followed Erin Hunter's Warriors series about feral cats have gone on to read the Ratha series.

Bell's love for big cats is also expressed in Tomorrow's Sphinx (about cheetahs in past and future Egypt) and The Jaguar Princess (a werecat (jaguar) woman in Aztec Mexico). Bell is also fascinated with flight, writing People of the Sky about Pueblo Indians who migrate from Earth to another planet and learn to ride winged aliens. Bell's short stories have appeared in the Witch World and CatFantastic (cats and magic) anthologies, both edited by science fiction and fantasy writer, Andre Norton.