
Sign up to save your podcasts
Or


Reflecting on a year of phenomenal guests, we are bringing you a selection of the Best Conversations of 2024.
Ruth Shaw runs a collection of three tiny bookshops at the southern tip of New Zealand's South Island. Even more than the books on her shelves, Ruth's life has been a high adventure full of danger, tears, heartbreak and love.
Help and support is always available
You can call Lifeline 24 hours a day on 13 11 14.
Ruth Shaw runs a collection of three tiny bookstores at the southern tip of New Zealand's South Island.
In them, she sells books of adventure, drama, tragedy and romance.
But many of these stories pale in comparison to the colourful life Ruth has lived.
In the decades before she became a bookseller at the end of the world, Ruth sailed the seas, she was attacked by pirates, she deserted the navy, she played cards to survive, she had her heart broken and had it mended by a special man in gumboots.
Content Warning: this episode of Conversation contains discussion of sexual assault, forced adoption and infant death.
It also explores military service, the Navy, teen pregnancy, family relationships, fishing, fishing boats, romantic relationships, publishing industry, New Zealand, Tahiti, Papua New Guinea, travelling, ocean travel, pirates, card sharks, card games, gambling, guns, international travel, Catholicism, Catholic Church, Cardinals.
By ABC4.5
213213 ratings
Reflecting on a year of phenomenal guests, we are bringing you a selection of the Best Conversations of 2024.
Ruth Shaw runs a collection of three tiny bookshops at the southern tip of New Zealand's South Island. Even more than the books on her shelves, Ruth's life has been a high adventure full of danger, tears, heartbreak and love.
Help and support is always available
You can call Lifeline 24 hours a day on 13 11 14.
Ruth Shaw runs a collection of three tiny bookstores at the southern tip of New Zealand's South Island.
In them, she sells books of adventure, drama, tragedy and romance.
But many of these stories pale in comparison to the colourful life Ruth has lived.
In the decades before she became a bookseller at the end of the world, Ruth sailed the seas, she was attacked by pirates, she deserted the navy, she played cards to survive, she had her heart broken and had it mended by a special man in gumboots.
Content Warning: this episode of Conversation contains discussion of sexual assault, forced adoption and infant death.
It also explores military service, the Navy, teen pregnancy, family relationships, fishing, fishing boats, romantic relationships, publishing industry, New Zealand, Tahiti, Papua New Guinea, travelling, ocean travel, pirates, card sharks, card games, gambling, guns, international travel, Catholicism, Catholic Church, Cardinals.

100 Listeners

578 Listeners

772 Listeners

131 Listeners

52 Listeners

629 Listeners

220 Listeners

313 Listeners

42 Listeners

512 Listeners

375 Listeners

242 Listeners

37 Listeners

263 Listeners

111 Listeners

0 Listeners

1 Listeners

1 Listeners