Ruth H. Finnegan
AUTHOR

Ruth H. Finnegan

Literature & Fiction | Science & Engineering | History
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Hullo and thank you for taking an interest in me and my works, you are so welcome. Let’s get the formal stuff over first: Ruth Finnegan OBE, is an anthropologist, cultural historian and multi-award writer. She is EmerItus Professor of the Open University; Fellow and Medallist of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland; Fellow of the British Academy and of the American Folklore Society; and Honorary Fellow of Somerville College Oxford. She studied classics and anthropology at the University of Oxford followed by field research and university teaching first in Africa, then in England (primarily at the Open University) USA (Austin), and Fiji and, now with an international reputation, has friends throughout the world . Her many academic publications focus mainly on literary issues, music, and differing modes of communication, including extra sensory experience). She has also authored prize-winning novels and screenplays (three of them produced ), much influenced by her earlier classical studies (above all Homer), and by the rhythms of Irish and African story-telling. . Now the personal: I was born in and brought up in Derry and Donegal - something which has deeply influenced my life and my writing - and went from the age of 14 to a Quaker school ( that too). I love music, not least participating in choral singing, nature, and the sound of the sea. Following my Irish mother I have what others call a wild and weird imagination and find that my novels and poetry arise not from deliberate planning but, in some inexplicable unexpected way, in the liminal magic of dreams. I now live in a lovely wooded retirement village in Milton Keynes - a city which inspired my ethnographic urban trilogy - and continue writing and learning in the pleasantest of surroundings. The favourite among my books? To be honest it’s usually the one I’ve just finished. Of my scholarly contributions I suppose (looking back - long time!) the best known are ‘Oral literature in Africa’, ‘Oral poetry’ and ‘The hidden musicians’. But now closest to my heart are my more recent ‘Time for the world to learn from Africa’ (it’s still needed!), and, because I learned so much from working on them, ‘The hidden lives of taxi drivers’ and the latest edition ( 2023) of ‘Communicating …’ - rather a tome that one but also well illustrated and (I value this) pretty accessible to general readers .. Among fiction I like the full novels of my Kate-Pearl series for their poetic, Homer-influenced, rhythmic prose, and because they somehow arrived with me from nowhere. Each, in the way of myths, recycles the same basic story and the same two characters, but told from differing perspectives. The same is true for the shorter, illustrated, versions for children and young adults My newest book is the outrageous “How to be a bad cook”. I enjoy it because it’s untypical of my usual writing, a bit mad, but also quite usefully funny. There’s some interesting anthropology-like stuff about food and its origins too, and great cartoons.
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