Ruth

@ruthbushi

Freelance writer in Cumbria. Covers film & fiction at www.thehaughtyculturist.com. Bridport Prize winner, 2025!

123 Siguiendo239 Seguidores247 Publicaciones

Bluesky

¿Es tu perfil?Reclámalo y ruthbushi.dirty.social es tuyo.Reclamar perfil

Ruth@ruthbushi· 10d

My god, this book - this book ... ! It's astonishing and incredible, and you must read it. Small Things Like These, by Claire Keegan.

Front over of Small Things Like These, by Claire Keegan.

Ruth@ruthbushi· 11d

What a strangely passive aggressive addendum to a diversity statement though, to be honest, that phrase has always irritated me because it involves no actual change or effort at all. But why include the disclaimer? Who is it meant to soothe?

Screenshot reads "UK-based writers from all backgrounds - underrepresented talent encouraged. Quality over box ticking."

Ruth@ruthbushi· 24d

A postcard from Silloth. #Cumbria

An empty, green wooden bus shelter stands in tall, yellow grass. There are no people in view.

Ruth@ruthbushi· 27d

I hardly ever say this to someone who isn't me, but you have GOT to get a grip

BBC news homepage has a picture of the England men's football team and headline "England close in on immortality with biggest match since 1966"

Ruth@ruthbushi· Jul 2

Via @ scouserofscouse on TikTok: a letter to The Guardian web.archive.org/web/20250305...

No woman in a burqa (or a hijab or a burkini) has ever done me any harm. But I was sacked (without explanation) by a man in a suit. Men in suits missold me pensions and endowments, costing me thousands of pounds. A man in a suit led us on a disastrous and illegal war. Men in suits led the banks and crashed the world economy. Other men in suits then increased the misery to millions through austerity. If we are to start telling people what to wear, maybe we should ban suits.
Henry Stewart
London

Ruth@ruthbushi· Jun 29

I can't link to it because of their horrible cookie policy online, but there's a good read on why parts of Wales voted for Brexit by Alex Ross in the Independent today.

Screenshot of newspaper page. Image is of a sign for EU funding. Headline reads "We was hoodwinked: inside the Welsh ex mining town that backed Brexit"

Ruth@ruthbushi· Jun 19

My #LastFourWatched for #LetterboxdFriday, plus my review for Disciples below. Also saw short film Relic this week but it's not in Letterboxd. 🔗 www.thehaughtyculturist.com/films/discip...

Four film posters in a row: Rampage, Maternal Instinct, The DaVinci Code, and Disciples

Ruth@ruthbushi· May 13

Enough time has passed. Elastica biopic. Now.

Stark black and white photo: three young women and a young man, all in black, lean against a brick wall.

Ruth@ruthbushi· May 12

I've been highly commended in The Bridge Awards Emerging Writer Award for my novel-in-progress (speculative horror, for the curious). It's a lovely thing; thank you Moniack Mhor & TBA. Writers, it's free to enter! Bookmark & submit later this year ✒️ www.moniackmhor.org.uk/writers/awar...

Ruth@ruthbushi· May 4

Built myself a weather web app with weatherapi.com (free) and vanilla #JS. Used the Met Office app's layout in the first iteration. Highly recommend making your own as a coding project; it's so satisfying and actually useful. #JavaScript #Coding #tech 👩‍💻

Mobile phone screen with blue background and a three-day weather forecast, complete with graphics showing sun or clouds, temperature, chance or rain, and wind speed.

Ruth@ruthbushi· Apr 24

There's something so regenerative about seeing the trees with their blossoms. #bloomscrolling

A wide residential street on a very sunny, cloudless day. On the right hand side of the street are raised grass verges, each with a mature tree laden with pink and white blossom.

Ruth@ruthbushi· Apr 17

A bit o' Cumbria

Medieval stone keep of Carlisle Castle seen through thick, pink blossom flowers.

Ruth@ruthbushi· Mar 20

#LetterboxdFriday #LastFourWatched

Four film posters: Project Hail Mary, Pet Sematary, The Dinosaurs, and Double Jeopardy.

Ruth@ruthbushi· Mar 20

Dune poster - bright orange circle with a man and a woman in front. Film title reads VOTE. Subtitle reads FOR PEDRO.

Ruth@ruthbushi· Mar 19

Good news; it'll still only cost you £540,000 to travel by train from Leeds to London if you book six weeks in advance during a new moon and on a Friday.* *Train may be a replacement bus.

Screenshot of an ad shows a blue background and white text which reads Rail fares have been frozen across England until March 2027

Ruth@ruthbushi· Mar 6

I am the degenerate who doesn't do star ratings. Also, I've regressed to a teenage boy, apparently. #LetterboxdFriday #LastFourWatched

Movie posters: The Untouchables, Point Break, The Amazing Spider-Man, The Firm.

Ruth@ruthbushi· Feb 15

"Over the years I did my best to win a prize; some wish to better the world and still scorn it. But I never succeeded; there's a formula, a secret, I don't know what, that people who have been to public school or Brownies seem to understand." Jeanette Winterson, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit

Book cover: a vintage style photo of a young girl standing over a bicycle that's far too big for her.

Ruth@ruthbushi· Feb 14

Having a "clear out," i.e., looking in boxes and drifting away, and found some signed books. One by Roger McGough - who was lovely! - and the other, which reads "Try to get further than this page. Good luck." Reader, I didn't, but I've prized it nonetheless :)

Title page of Selected Poems by Roger McGough, signed with the author's name.

Black handwriting reads: Try and get further than this page. Best of luck.

Ruth@ruthbushi· Feb 13

#LetterboxdFriday #LastFourWatched #Filmsky

Four film posters: Deliverance, Nuts in May, Murder my Sweet (a.k.a Farewell My Lovely), and Crossfire.

Ruth@ruthbushi· Feb 5

Substack data breach in February - unauthorised third party accessed personal data including emails and phone numbers. Substack says "it sucks."

Email text reads: I’m reaching out to let you know about a security incident that resulted in the email address from your Substack account being shared without your permission.

I’m incredibly sorry this happened. We take our responsibility to protect your data and your privacy seriously, and we came up short here.

What happened. On February 3rd, we identified evidence of a problem with our systems that allowed an unauthorized third party to access limited user data without permission, including email addresses, phone numbers, and other internal metadata. This data was accessed in October 2025. Importantly, credit card numbers, passwords, and financial information were not accessed.

What we are doing. We have fixed the problem with our system that allowed this to happen. We are conducting a full investigation, and are taking steps to improve our systems and processes to prevent this type of issue from happening in the future.

What you can do. We do not have evidence that this information is being misused, but we encourage you to take extra caution with any emails you receive that may be suspicious.

This sucks. I'm sorry. We will work very hard to make sure it does not happen again.

Ruth@ruthbushi· Feb 1

Cloudy for days, and then - Moon.

Full moon in black sky. The moon is a light grey, with darker grey mottling in its seas.

Ruth@ruthbushi· Jan 12

BAN GREGGS

Grey map of the UK showing locations of Greggs the Bakers with red dots. Locations align with Kemi's crime maps.

Ruth@ruthbushi· Jan 5

I give you: the Moon (and my very first attempt at astrophotography).

Waning gibbous moon right in the middle of a deep black sky. The moon is a dark grey, almost brown, and is almost full but missing a section at the top. Along the missing curve, we can see craters.

Ruth@ruthbushi· Jan 1

Lost count of the times I've been doing interval runs at the gym only for the Matrix treadmill to stop at 20 minutes because I forgot to override the default timer. So I've added a trigger (via the Automate app) to show a reminder when I open my running app. Take that, forgetfulness / Matrix. 🧠💻🏃‍♀️😊

A screenshot from the Automate app shows a black dotted background, like a workspace. On it are four graphics arranged in a column. The top graphic reads "Flow beginning". It's connected to the others with graphical wires. The bottom two graphics reads "Show toast" and "Vibrate".

Ruth@ruthbushi· Dec 7

Found the Penguin Book of Modern Women's Short Stories on the Marie Curie secondhand shelf in the supermarket so RAN home to get some change, then RAN back to the supermarket. Putting the book in my bag, I found my coin purse! But I don't mind; "es ist für mich," as the good man said. #BookSky

Ruth@ruthbushi· Nov 29

... The Godfather is better than The Godfather Part II, but the latter has set-ups like this, and in fact, countless others where the centre of the shot is absent, and the action happens at the edges. Here, Al watches Michael greet Fredo ... and waits for Mike's nod to kill his his brother.

Funeral scene from The Godfather Part II, with Michael and brother Fredo on the far right of the scene. On the far left - and watching the brothers - is a well built man in a black suit and tie.

Ruth@ruthbushi· Oct 27

Still laughing at this review for John Carpenter's The Thing

Review by Brian Collins on Letterboxd. Text reads "For almost 40 years people have been asking if it's Macready or Childs when the answer is neither. The credits clearly say that John Carpenter's The Thing."

Ruth@ruthbushi· Oct 18

STOP what you're doing and listen to the angels sing. "Here the Deities Approve," Henry Purcell, via Brandon Acker and Reginald Mobley. Utterly magical. (You don't need Tiktok to view the link.) seetiktok.com/ZNd7q89w7/

One man plays an exaggerated lure while another man in a flowery shirt sings into a microphone.

Ruth@ruthbushi· Oct 2

Me changing the bed by myself

Ruth@ruthbushi· Jan 23

This just nearly gave me a heart attack! A UK government emergency broadcast popped up on my phone with a red alert warning for the weather, though from the sound of it we thought it was about an imminent nuclear strike... #StormEowyn #Scotland