Ruth Dugdall

Ruth Dugdall is a novelist from Felixstowe, Suffolk, UK. Her fiction falls into the genre of crime writing, with a particular focus upon forensics. She specialises in domestic noir.

Early life and education

Dudgall studied a degree in English and Theatre Studies at Warwick University and gained an MA in Social Work from the University of East Anglia.

Career

Dugdall was inspired by a prison drama workshop that she attended, and so decided to train as a probation officer. Working in this area, she specialised in contact with offenders deemed ‘high risk’, with inmates who had often been found guilty of stalking, rape and murder. Dugdall qualified as a probation officer in 1996. These experiences offered her an insight into forensic psychology, which informed her crime writing. Dugdall’s novel The Woman Before Me and its follow-up The Sacrificial Man were published by Legend Press. The former won the Debut Dagger Award, and sold 45,000 copies. Dugdall said ‘I write to reflect my own experiences…when I wrote The Woman Before Me I had just had a baby, and the novel was a sort of therapy during those early months with no sleep and plenty of anxiety. And of course my protagonist is a probation officer, reflecting my own past career’. Euro Crime described The Sacrificial Man as 'a readable, very well-plotted tale, with believable and sympathetic characters'.Legend Press acquired world rights for her next two novels, Humber Boy B and Nowhere Girl.

List of Marvel Comics characters: R

R. U. Reddy

R. U. Reddy (Winthrop Roan, Jr.) is a mutant and a member of the Thunderiders. He first appeared in Captain America #269 (May 1982), and was created by J. M. DeMatteis and Mike Zeck. Winthrop Roan, Jr. was the singer in a rock band known as Ruff Stuff. With Honcho and Wolf, he formed the professional motorcyclist team called Team America, which was eventually known as the Thunderiders. R.U. Reddy is a mutant who shares a mental link with the four other members of the Thunderiders. The five mutants can project their collective physical skills, strength, and knowledge into another person without diminishing their own abilities in any way.

Radion the Atomic Man

Radion the Atomic Man first appeared in Marvel Two-in-One #9 (May 1975), and was created by Steve Gerber, Chris Claremont and Herb Trimpe. Exposure to radioactive isotopes caused Dr. Henri Sorel to mutate into an inhuman being who could generate blasts of nuclear energy, and warped his personality. The Puppet Master agreed to assist Radion in exchange for his help. Radion amplified the radiation in the Puppet Master's clay, enabling him to use Thor to attack the Fantastic Four. When Wundarr the Aquarian arrived to help, he absorbed Radion's powers, causing Radion to flee. Sorel then constructed a suit of armor to contain his energies and protect himself from reaching critical mass. He renamed himself the Ravager and traveled to London. He is also known as the Atom.

Ruth (novel)

Ruth is a novel by Elizabeth Gaskell, first published in three volumes in 1853.

The plot

Ruth is a young orphan girl working in a respectable sweatshop for the overworked Mrs Mason. She is selected to go to a ball to repair torn dresses. At the ball she meets the aristocratic Henry Bellingham, a rake figure who is instantly attracted to her. They meet again by chance and form a secret friendship; on an outing together they are spotted by Mrs Mason who, fearing for her shop's reputation, dismisses Ruth.

Alone in the world, Ruth is whisked away by Bellingham to London where it is implied she becomes a fallen woman. They go on holiday to Wales together and there on a country walk Ruth meets the disabled and kind Mr Benson. Bellingham falls sick with fever and the hotel calls for his mother who arrives and is disgusted by her son's having lived in sin with Ruth. Bellingham is persuaded by his mother to abandon Ruth in Wales, leaving her some money.

A distraught Ruth attempts suicide but is spotted by Mr Benson who helps comfort her. When he learns of her past and that she is alone he brings her back to his home town, where he is a Dissenting minister, to stay with him and his formidable but kind sister Faith. When they learn that Ruth is pregnant they decide to lie to the town and claim that she is a widow called Mrs Denbigh, to protect her from a society which would otherwise shun her.

Ruth (sternwheeler 1895)

The steamboat Ruth operated from 1895 to 1917 on the Willamette River in the U.S. state of Oregon.Ruth played an important role in the transport of goods and agricultural products in Oregon, and was one of the fastest steamboats ever to operate on the upper Willamette. This vessel should not be confused with the sternwheeler Ruth built at Libby, Montana in 1896.

The wheat trade

Farmers would grow wheat in the Willamette Valley, then bring it by wagon to river ports where it would be bagged and loaded onto steamboats bound downriver to Portland. One of the key centers to the wheat trade was the now-abandoned town of Lincoln, Oregon, in Polk County. Originally known as Doak's Ferry, Lincoln was about 6 miles (9.7 km) south of Salem, Oregon. Lincoln, was once the most important wheat port on the Willamette, as historian Corning describes:

Operations

By the 1890s, rail construction in the Willamette Valley had caused a sharp decline in steamboat traffic, as more and more freight was shipped by rail rather than water. Lincoln remained an exception, and well into the 1890s three steamboats a day called at the town. The vessels would leave Portland in the morning, pass through the Willamette Locks, and arrive at Lincoln at about 3:00 p.m.Ruth, when newly launched, was able to beat this time, and under Captain Miles Bell, set what may have been a record time for the Lincoln run, as historian Corning describes: