When I Was Bad

In 1966 South Africa miscegenation laws decreed that people who were classified as racially different should not marry, love each other, have sex or children. Racism was the accepted norm, and morality strict, but Ruth was pregnant. The father of her baby was classified as non-white so she had no choice but to run away to London. This is a raw, brutal account of her first year in England. More

“Love, it seems to me, is as important to our psychic, spiritual and emotional life as fungi are to our physical lifeand both together may be essential for us to function.”

In 1966 South Africa miscegenation laws decreed that people who were classified as racially different should not marry, love each other, have sex or children. Racism was the accepted norm, and morality strict, but Ruth was pregnant. The father of her baby was classified as non-white so she had no choice but to run away to London. This is a raw, brutal account of her first year in England. Ruth’s writing is sometimes lyrical, sometimes funny, sometimes painful to read, always worthwhile.

“An interesting and thought-provoking memoir of Ruth Hartley’s escape to London in the early 1960’s while pregnant with her first born - I went through a whole roller-coaster of emotions, from sadness to happiness to anger.”
Manisha Natha, A LoveReading Ambassador

Ruth Hartley is the author of: The Shaping of Water, The Tin Heart Gold Mine, The Love and Wisdom Crimes, The Spiral-Bound Notebooks: Poems from 1961
www.ruthhartley.com