Ruth’s paternal grandmother, Alida, passed away when she was two years old. Alida was a Swedish immigrant, who arrived in Australia in 1899 as a newlywed. She gave birth to her first child on the Western Australian goldfields in the summer of 1900. When Ruth realized she was the last one in the family in possession of the tales of her strong, gutsy grandmother, she believed the story should not go untold. This inspired her to write her first book, Alida’s Story in which she shows how our lives are woven into the social history of the times.

Two years ago, Ruth and her husband, Don, who now live on the south east coast of NSW, moved from Victoria’s High Country where they had worked their homestay holiday business for international students for over twenty years. Providing language tuition and local adventures for the young students from Asia and Europe had been a very satisfying experience but with the Covid 19 closure of international borders, the business had to close. It has been a dramatic lifestyle change for Ruth. So with much more free time at hand, she decided to develop her interest in writing. After following up her grandmother’s story with her mother’s and her own, Ruth then decided to write her first novel, Clouds and Sunshine, which touches on the aspirations she had as a young woman and develops as a story of intrigue and romance.