Ruth Martin
@dances-with-voles.bsky.social
German to English translator and general book botherer (she/her)
#TodayInTheBay why not pull up a chair and enjoy the view
December 11, 2025 at 1:31 PM
#TodayInTheBay why not pull up a chair and enjoy the view
TIL that Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch was the inspiration for Ratty in The Wind In The Willows. He did a lot of messing about in boats around Fowey.
November 24, 2025 at 10:47 PM
TIL that Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch was the inspiration for Ratty in The Wind In The Willows. He did a lot of messing about in boats around Fowey.
This evening I was planning to go out and do some anti-racist protesting then come home for a pasta bake - but three hours later we were being kettled for our own safety while the Flag People threw eggs at us. It's a bit scary out there.
October 30, 2025 at 9:17 PM
This evening I was planning to go out and do some anti-racist protesting then come home for a pasta bake - but three hours later we were being kettled for our own safety while the Flag People threw eggs at us. It's a bit scary out there.
The care home where my mum lives has the most alarming image when you look it up on Google maps. It's from when the animal man came in, but it really requires some context
September 12, 2025 at 9:21 AM
The care home where my mum lives has the most alarming image when you look it up on Google maps. It's from when the animal man came in, but it really requires some context
I always thought this was just Cornish, am delighted to discover it elsewhere (this is from A Glossary of the Cornish Dialect by K.C. Phillipps)
August 7, 2025 at 3:12 PM
I always thought this was just Cornish, am delighted to discover it elsewhere (this is from A Glossary of the Cornish Dialect by K.C. Phillipps)
Back in Boppard am Rhein (Truro's twin town) for the first time since the school German exchange in 1993. It's delightful, and all the better for not having spent 2 days travelling from Cornwall by coach.
July 30, 2025 at 2:14 PM
Back in Boppard am Rhein (Truro's twin town) for the first time since the school German exchange in 1993. It's delightful, and all the better for not having spent 2 days travelling from Cornwall by coach.
I'm pretty bland online so don't attract a lot of hate - but in real life I get mercilessly trolled by next door's cat
July 3, 2025 at 7:44 AM
I'm pretty bland online so don't attract a lot of hate - but in real life I get mercilessly trolled by next door's cat
Launched! And out in bookshops tomorrow - please read this beautiful meditation on migration, home, what it means to leave and to stay. uk.bookshop.org/p/books/blur...
June 26, 2025 at 9:09 AM
Launched! And out in bookshops tomorrow - please read this beautiful meditation on migration, home, what it means to leave and to stay. uk.bookshop.org/p/books/blur...
Something to keep in mind this Independent Bookshop Week (courtesy of the Little Green Bookshop's third birthday celebration this afternoon)
June 14, 2025 at 8:12 PM
Something to keep in mind this Independent Bookshop Week (courtesy of the Little Green Bookshop's third birthday celebration this afternoon)
I went to Europe's highest bookshop earlier this year, a branch of Feltrinelli most of the way up Mont Blanc (3466m). Aware this isn't what you asked, but it was pretty exciting.
June 12, 2025 at 11:59 AM
I went to Europe's highest bookshop earlier this year, a branch of Feltrinelli most of the way up Mont Blanc (3466m). Aware this isn't what you asked, but it was pretty exciting.
BIG BOOK klaxon: this 725pp epic will be out in September, translated by @cctranslates.bsky.social and me. More info here: www.harpercollins.com/products/the...
May 12, 2025 at 1:16 PM
BIG BOOK klaxon: this 725pp epic will be out in September, translated by @cctranslates.bsky.social and me. More info here: www.harpercollins.com/products/the...
At Waterstones in Canterbury, to see the wonderful Sarah Perry in a conversation that featured the beauty of physics, the importance of form in novels, and a big audience-prompted digression on Sherlock Holmes.
April 30, 2025 at 7:13 PM
At Waterstones in Canterbury, to see the wonderful Sarah Perry in a conversation that featured the beauty of physics, the importance of form in novels, and a big audience-prompted digression on Sherlock Holmes.
Australian pub day for this beauty (the UK has to wait until June, sorry) - reviewed here by @tonysreadinglist.bsky.social tonysreadinglist.wordpress.com/2025/04/29/t...
April 29, 2025 at 8:10 AM
Australian pub day for this beauty (the UK has to wait until June, sorry) - reviewed here by @tonysreadinglist.bsky.social tonysreadinglist.wordpress.com/2025/04/29/t...
Canterbury has a new(ish) statue of Aphra Behn, who grew up here, by Christine Charlesworth. Isn't she lovely?
April 19, 2025 at 7:46 PM
Canterbury has a new(ish) statue of Aphra Behn, who grew up here, by Christine Charlesworth. Isn't she lovely?
New book! Sunshine! Italian lemons!
March 20, 2025 at 3:39 PM
New book! Sunshine! Italian lemons!
First pigeon of London Book Fair
March 11, 2025 at 12:17 PM
First pigeon of London Book Fair
There's a Feltrinelli bookshop most of the way up Mont Blanc at 3466 metres, officially the highest bookshop in Europe. Not a bad place to work, I imagine.
March 5, 2025 at 3:34 PM
There's a Feltrinelli bookshop most of the way up Mont Blanc at 3466 metres, officially the highest bookshop in Europe. Not a bad place to work, I imagine.
Exciting post!!
February 26, 2025 at 1:29 PM
Exciting post!!
We've been to Margate to view the newly restored T.S. Eliot shelter
And eat pizza
Our expedition was not wholly cultural
And eat pizza
Our expedition was not wholly cultural
January 17, 2025 at 10:11 PM
We've been to Margate to view the newly restored T.S. Eliot shelter
And eat pizza
Our expedition was not wholly cultural
And eat pizza
Our expedition was not wholly cultural
Reading uncomfortably because the cat has occupied The Reading Nest and I feel I shouldn't disturb him
January 16, 2025 at 6:19 PM
Reading uncomfortably because the cat has occupied The Reading Nest and I feel I shouldn't disturb him
The highlight of my reading year: this 650pp beast. If you love 20th-century German literature, the more depressing parts of the Kent coast, and entertaining 5-page digressions about drainage ditches, this is for you. It's an extraordinary feature of research and really engagingly written.
December 31, 2024 at 12:23 PM
The highlight of my reading year: this 650pp beast. If you love 20th-century German literature, the more depressing parts of the Kent coast, and entertaining 5-page digressions about drainage ditches, this is for you. It's an extraordinary feature of research and really engagingly written.
Well that's just ridiculous
November 30, 2024 at 5:22 PM
Well that's just ridiculous
I've been out at dawn every day this week with my dad's dog, touring the religious bits of Penhale dunes. Nice way to start the day (except in Storm Bert, that wasn't fun).
November 28, 2024 at 8:42 AM
I've been out at dawn every day this week with my dad's dog, touring the religious bits of Penhale dunes. Nice way to start the day (except in Storm Bert, that wasn't fun).
From Elisabeth Zerofsky in the New York Times: "somehow" = Shaun and the editors (and all those Friday meetings)
![From an NYT book review: "Merkel, ever the consensus builder, has also employed [i love the idea that she picked us directly 😀] no fewer than eight translators, who somehow manage not to get in one another's way as they present the German leader's innermost thoughts and feelings"](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:irnmcfwxorru4al3webnnbkz/bafkreibcbxgqjifbu4makpqqygqm6yx5pevuyj5nevvnaaota5rn3cnvfu@jpeg)
November 26, 2024 at 8:33 PM
From Elisabeth Zerofsky in the New York Times: "somehow" = Shaun and the editors (and all those Friday meetings)