Gabriel Ellison – artist, writer, designer and extraordinary woman

Ruth HartleyBooks by Ruth Hartley, Southern Africa, Visual Arts, Zambia25 Comments

Gabriel Ellison Gabriel Ellison, MBE and Grand Officer of Distinguished Service, was a very private person. You would never have guessed from her manner what an important role she has played in Zambia or that she was decorated by both the British Government and the Zambian government for her services to the arts in Zambia. She worked tirelessly all her […]

And still we rise…! 84%! – Tanvir Naomi Bush

Ruth Hartley Storytelling, Family, Racism5 Comments

Dear Readers – introducing my extraordinary novelist daughter, Tanvir Naomi Bush, who is crowdfunding through Unbound for her next novel – please read her post for a flavour of the story. If you like you can help through Unbound. CULL has hit 84% of total and is on a roll! For those of you unsure about what this is all […]

A journey in France with story books, a donkey and in the company of wolves

Ruth Hartley Storytelling, Books by Ruth Hartley2 Comments

Companionable books and dangerous travels in the wild One of the greatest pleasures that anyone can have is that of making a journey with good companions. Some of the best travelling companions are pages of paper stitched and bound into storybooks – or the wizardry of a Kindle! One of the delights of both travelling and books is discovering that […]

Its Jim and Jenny’s Book Swap on Sunday 9th July at 3pm – Don’t miss it!

Ruth Hartley Storytelling, Books by Ruth Hartley, Festival, Imagination, Photography2 Comments

Free books and free drinks A wonderful opportunity to indulge yourself for a whole afternoon searching out those fantastic books that you’ve been dying to read while you have a free drink. It’s too hot to go outside and garden – all you can do is lie in the shade and read and read. Bring the books that you have […]

Grenfell Tower

Ruth HartleyJustice, Poetry, Truth2 Comments

Grenfell Tower on fire Smoke rushing skywards screaming swirling burning blackening poisoning roaring roiling sprinkling light spreading debris sparkling fire-wrapping the homes flaming flaming the living core fire-wrapping fire-wrapping the furnace of families flaming flaming choking the children fire-wrapping fire-wrapping blinding the babies flaming flaming closer to the crying fire-wrapping fire-wrapping the people who perish flaming flaming suffocating the souls […]