Kariba Dam, Climate Change, Hydro-Power, Agriculture and Water

Ruth Hartley Storytelling, Climate change, Dust and Rain, The Shaping of Water, Zambia1 Comment

In fact, everything needed for life in Zambia, Zimbabwe and the SADC region There is a huge and important news story to be told about climate change that affects the whole of sub-Saharan Africa and therefore the world. I have discovered since posting this blog that the video I watched about the Zambezi River being so low on water that […]

Saving my stories

Ruth Hartley Storytelling, Art by Ruth Hartley, Book Publishing, Books by Ruth Hartley, Digital Publishing, Displacement, Dust and Rain, Exile, Feminism, Freedom Fighters, Promotion, Self-Publishing, The Colourless Child, The Love and Wisdom Crimes, The Shaping of Water, The Tin Heart Gold Mine, When I Was Bad, When We Were Wicked, Zambia1 Comment

What are the risks to my stories Saving my stories required an agent, high-profile reviews, media links, book launches, hard work and lots of money. I had none of those and I had to save my stories myself. Publishers told me that if a book is not successfully marketed in the six months after publication, it will die. As a […]

Four children alone in the Amazon Rain forest

Ruth Hartley Storytelling, Children's Stories, Climate change, Dust and Rain, Journey, Zambia3 Comments

There was good news. Four children had survived a plane crash and 40 days wandering in the Amazon jungle.They were children who had knowledge and experience of nature but they were weak and hungry when they were found. This is a profound lesson for all humans. We are human animals. We are part of nature and our survival depends on […]

The Book of Memory by Petina Gappah

Ruth HartleyColonialism, Displacement, Family, Migration, Politics, Race, Racism, Southern Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe2 Comments

New Year in another country On New Year’s Day we fled from France across the snow-covered Pyrenees pursued by stormy winds and heavy rain. There we wandered along empty twisting roads among ruined and isolated stone villages and ancient monasteries in the  brutal mountains of Spanish Aragon. In our hotel room the television showed no news and told no stories […]

The Halley’s Comet Exhibition at Mpapa Gallery Zambia 1986

Ruth HartleyHistory, Mpapa Gallery, ZambiaLeave a Comment

Rockets, comets and Deep Space research Ariane, is the rocket developed in France by the European Space Agency and first launched in 1979. I feel that I have a connection with it that goes back 36 years to 1986 when I was one of the directors of the Mpapa Gallery in Zambia. The Ariane rocket was named after Ariadne the […]