Tall stories, true stories, lies, fiction, facts and truth-telling

Ruth Hartley Storytelling, Apartheid, Books by Ruth Hartley, Family, Memoir, Poetry, Reading, South Africa, Southern Africa, The Love and Wisdom Crimes, The Spiral-Bound Notebooks, When I Was Bad, Writing ProcessLeave a Comment

Writing fictions, memoirs and versions of my truth In the last few months I have published three books. The first is a novel, the second is a book of poetry, the inspiration on which the novel is based and the third is a memoir. They are – The Love and Wisdom Crimes A coming-of-age adventure story about a young white […]

The story of my stories — writing and publishing

Ruth Hartley Storytelling, Books by Ruth Hartley, Creativity, Identity, Memoir, Poetry, Politics, Reading, Southern Africa, The Love and Wisdom Crimes, The Shaping of Water, The Tin Heart Gold Mine, The White and Black Blues, Writing Process, Zambia10 Comments

The storyteller’s story It is time to tell of my own journey as a writer from the young poet in 1961 to the writer of today. It’s a story of both writing and publishing. I am in the process of publishing three more books right now. They are a novel, The Love and Wisdom Crimes, a memoir, When I was […]

My family and other writers

Ruth Hartley Storytelling, Book Publishing, Books by Ruth Hartley, Creativity, Family, South Africa, The Love and Wisdom Crimes, Writing Process2 Comments

The unbearable lightness of writing I don’t like all Milan Kundera‘s novels but I did like his The Unbearable Lightness of Being.  I  joke about the lightness of writing, of course. Writing makes my spirit light even when it is an unbearably heavy task. Being part of a family is both heavy and light work. My daughter, Tanvir Bush, is […]

Good, bad, sad, & happy books & trending endings

Ruth Hartley Storytelling, Book Publishing, Books by Ruth Hartley, Promotion, The Love and Wisdom CrimesLeave a Comment

Books that taught us to be good               My grandmother gave me a Victorian children’s anthology. It had tales of Jack Downing who always was second in his class and Jack Upping who was always top of the class. The moral was acceptance of being second best – I can’t remember what the advantages […]

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 […]