‘The Shape of Water’ and ‘The Shaping of Water’ and the Oscars

Ruth HartleyDisplacement, The Shaping of Water, The Tin Heart Gold Mine, Video, War, Writing Process2 Comments

Films and books and Oscars There’s my first novel The Shaping of Water – and there’s the film – The Shape of Water  – its quite strange when the title of your book is almost, but not quite, on the shortlist of the Oscars! If only! Add to that that there is a fascinating character called Oscar in my novel […]

Rica Hodgson: “foot soldier for freedom”, friend and hero

Ruth HartleyApartheid, Freedom Fighters, Memoir, South Africa, Southern Africa, The Love and Wisdom Crimes, When I Was Bad, Zambia6 Comments

Rica Hodgson — the freedom fighter who rescued me 52 years ago This post is harder to write than I expected. I was at my desk and about to write Rica a letter when I learnt that she had died. It was not unanticipated. She was 97 and had been in frail health for a while. I had only just […]

Love Stories, World Wars, Armistice Day & why I wrote The Tin Heart Gold Mine

Ruth HartleyBooks by Ruth Hartley, Migration, Politics, Southern Africa, The Tin Heart Gold Mine, War, Zambia8 Comments

Today 11.11.2017 is Armistice Day. Next year is the centenary of the end of World War One. On that day the German East African army was undefeated. It only surrendered on 25.11.1918 two weeks later. The surrender was signed in Zambia at Mbala (Abercorn),- check out the website – all those fascinating facts link to The Tin Heart Gold Mine […]

Storytelling in words and pictures and & what it means for history, fiction and our lives today

Ruth Hartley Storytelling, Books by Ruth Hartley, Colonialism, History, Southern Africa, The Shaping of Water, The Tin Heart Gold Mine, Visual Arts, War, Zambia2 Comments

The importance of art and photos – Gallery 37d Lusaka Zambia Its wonderful when things come together to help enrich our lives and our understanding of the world. There is an art gallery in Lusaka Zambia – Gallery 37d – that is the home of the stART Foundation which supports Zambian artists. Apart from this important work they have been […]

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 […]