The Banshees of Inisherin

Ruth Hartley Storytelling, Art Process, Conflict, Film, Music, Politics, Uncategorized2 Comments

The Banshees of Inisherin was on at the local cinema the night after the Golden Globe event on TV. We decided to see it because Colin Farrell had won an award for his role in it. The film is set against the background noise of the guns of the Irish civil war. Innis Erin – Inisherin means the island of […]

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. […]

The Society of Spectacle and what ‘appearance’ signifies for writers

Ruth HartleyArt Process, Creativity, Film, Identity, Politics, Promotion, Reading, Visual ArtsLeave a Comment

Marketing books and the writer as commodity I didn’t know yesterday what I would post today until a television programme last night that was supposed to be amusing made me angry. There was noisy laughter, mockery and four-letter words. Frankie Boyle, the presenter joked that Guy Debord had shot himself in his heart – or  – maybe his head – […]

About good writing – but also about good films

Ruth HartleyBooks by Ruth Hartley, Film, The Tin Heart Gold Mine, Writing ProcessLeave a Comment

Films need plots Good films depend on good stories according to Steven Spielberg. I watched the BBC’s The Little Drummer Girl with dread and delight. Would it be a pleasure? Could it live up to expectations? It was and it did! I sat down happily afterwards to reread John Le Carré‘s brilliant novel. Film and book had to be different but […]

Mixing art and writing – can it be done?

Ruth HartleyComic Strip, Film, Graphic Novel, Visual Arts1 Comment

Hello again! How many of you do what I try to do? My website — the one you are looking at now — is about both my art and my writing. The fact that they are both on my website and mixed together in my work is something I take for granted these days but I didn’t always. Maybe some […]