The Charroux Prize for Poetry or Prose

Ruth Hartley Storytelling, Apartheid, Books by Ruth Hartley, Festival, Poetry, Politics, Promotion, Race, Racism, South Africa, Southern Africa, The Love and Wisdom Crimes, The Spiral-Bound Notebooks, Zambia2 Comments

I entered the Charroux prize for a short memoir and had enormous fun writing two short memoirs and a poem for this competition. The prize, however, went to Moira Ashley for her delightful story Encounter. The third prize to Debi Lewis for Soundtrack of the First Marriage . I was surprised and pleased to be long-listed for the poetry section. […]

Stories and books are what make us human

Ruth Hartley Storytelling, Books by Ruth Hartley, Festival, Film, Promotion, Reading, Southern Africa, Writing Process1 Comment

The importance of books This Saturday, I’m at the Au’Tour du Livre book festival in the nearby town of Vic en Bigorre behind a table loaded with my books. I’ll be hoping for readers and I’ll be talking to writers I know. Last weekend I spent magic moments hunting through boxes of second-hand books at the Amis des Animaux fete. […]

Book Festival and my Book Launch

Ruth HartleyBook Launch, Book Publishing, Books by Ruth Hartley, Festival, Illustration, Promotion, Reading, The Love and Wisdom Crimes, The Shaping of Water, The Spiral-Bound Notebooks, The Tin Heart Gold Mine, When I Was BadLeave a Comment

I’m promoting the three books I’ve published this year The Love and Wisdom Crimes is a novel based on real experiences. In it Jane returns to South Africa as apartheid ends to unlock the secrets of her past as a young political activist in a police state. My collection of poetry, The Spiral-bound Notebooks contains my early poems that form […]

Going back to books – it’s that time of year

Ruth HartleyBook Launch, Books by Ruth Hartley, Festival, Promotion2 Comments

The great winter return to books, to reading, and to writing Autumn can be a sad time. The warm sunny days are over, the evenings are closing in and another year has gone – but – I can at last hide myself away. I can write all morning, read all afternoon and spend the evenings immersed in TV dramas. Indulgence […]

Tanvir Bush, writer, her readers and reviewers

Ruth HartleyBook Launch, Book Publishing, Books by Ruth Hartley, Festival, Nuanced Thinking, Politics, Reading, The Tin Heart Gold Mine, Writing Process2 Comments

Tanvir Bush’s novel CULL has been published My daughter, Tanvir Bush, is thrilled to have arrived at CULL’s date of publication and then discover this wonderful display of her books in the lovely Corsham Bookshop. These independent bookshops are greatly loved and prized by both writers and readers. The bookshop staff do great work in getting readers and books together […]