The Shaping of Water

Ruth Hartley Storytelling, Colonialism, Displacement, Freedom Fighters, Southern Africa, The Shaping of Water, Zambia4 Comments

The Shaping of Water Such a lovely thing happened to me today. My first novel The Shaping of Water has appeared on the Facebook Page and Website of Gadsden Publishers in Lusaka Zambia. This is the right place for my book to be – Zambia is the home of this novel. You can see the video about the book here […]

Remembering Rica Hodgson — my brave friend

Ruth HartleyApartheid, Freedom Fighters, Memoir, South Africa, Southern Africa, The Love and Wisdom Crimes, When I Was Bad, ZambiaLeave a Comment

Hello friends and fellow readers. Are you amongst those who didn’t see or couldn’t read my post on 20 January? It was about my friend and mentor, Rica Hodgson, who died recently. I am really sorry that it didn’t reach all of you who are interested in South African history and the anti-apartheid movement. This was due to technical problems […]

‘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 […]