We need new names and new roles

Ruth HartleyFamily, Identity, Naming6 Comments

Do we marry a person or marry a wife or husband? We were a new family, my mother, stepfather, two step-sisters, my sister and me. I was 16 years old when my mother and stepfather had a bitter argument – a natural part of adapting to a new relationship. My mother in utter misery, took to her bed weeping and […]

Elles sont tombées

Ruth HartleyEducation, Feminism, m’Other Art4 Comments

The fall of Kabul to the Taliban has filled me with despair for the future and hopes of women there and for women everywhere. I felt driven to once again show the paintings I made about the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Centre together with my installation about women. It is on show in the Foyer Rural in Labatut-Riviere […]

Food is Love and Love is Food and both are needed

Ruth HartleyApartheid, m’Other Art, Southern Africa, Visual Arts3 Comments

Lovely Men and the Politics of Food One thing leads to another. I have tomato blight in my potager so I gathered all the green tomatoes I could before they turned black and then went on a hunt for a green tomato chutney recipe. My modern South African cookbook makes use of tinned products and tame store-bought spices so I […]

Oak Apples, Ink and Writing

Ruth HartleySouthern Africa, Writing Process4 Comments

Walking to the river ‘Look! ‘I said as John and I walked to the river. ‘Oak apples!’ I stopped surprised at myself. ‘How do I know that’s what they are? How did I recognise them?’ I’m not English, I haven’t ever lived in the English countryside and I haven’t spent that many years in Europe. Where did that piece of […]

All that Jazz

Ruth HartleyApartheid, Jazz, Memoir, Short Stories, Southern Africa, When We Were Wicked, ZimbabweLeave a Comment

Monday 26th July Marciac Jazz Festival At 10.30 am at La Chouette Qui Lit I will be signing my latest book When We Were Wicked.  Please come – I’d love to see you and I will have copies of all my other books with me as well. La Chouette Qui Lit is a lovely bookshop where you can also get […]