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The Hidden Ordinary: Reflections in Anthropology By Ruth Finnegan is the OWGRA Book of the Month

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The Hidden Ordinary: Reflections in Anthropology By Ruth Finnegan is the OWGRA Book of the Month

July 20
09:15 2020
The Hidden Ordinary: Reflections in Anthropology by renowned author Ruth Finnegan has been chosen for the OWGRA book of the month.

The Hidden Ordinary: Reflections in Anthropology by author Ruth Finnegan is unique and interesting as it helps discover some of the amazing things around us. The book, chosen for the OWGRA book of the month, has some secret revelations that readers are unlikely to find elsewhere. 

“My approach to writing is typical of anthropology and that probably comes from my Irish background,” says Ruth Finnegan about her unique style of writing. This book is perfect for locked-down readers and offers an insight into the hidden wealth of ordinary people. I have attempted to focus on the activities of such people that we see all around us but don’t really stop to notice.”

Ruth Finnegan’s previous awards include:

  • Folklore Society, shortlist Katharine Briggs Award 1992
  • British Academy, long list Book Award 2003
  • British Association for Applied Linguistics, shortlist 2003
  • Herskovits Award, Honorable Mention 2008
  • National Indie Excellence, Finalist (visionary fiction) 2016, Finalist (religious fiction) 2017
  • New York Book Fair, Honorable Mention (romance) 2016
  • Readers Favorite, 4 Awards (fiction and nonfiction) 2016
  • Shelf Unbound Best Indie Book, Runner up 2016
  • Hungry Monster, Silver award, 2016
  • Literary Titan, Silver award, 2017
  • Book Excellence, Winner (friendship) 2017
  • Kirkus Reviews, one of the top 25 of 2017
  • Literary Titan Gold Award (twice), 2020
  • Screenplays, multiple International Contest Awards 2017-20


The Hidden Ordinary: Reflections in Anthropology is an unusual book that offers an insight into aspects that are regarded as controversial by many. The book transcends into areas like the reality, the hidden, and extra-sensory perception. Ruth Finnegan believes that the weird second sight Irish perspective in her is what makes her explore such topics that others won’t dare touch.

The Hidden Ordinary: Reflections in Anthropology makes interesting reading as it takes readers through a unique journey. The chapters in the book are:

  • Preface
  • Poetry in hiding
  • Literature lurking within performance
  • Stories of the everyday
  • What we don’t see in music – but is there
  • Hidden music king in a town
  • The surprising origin of those familiar quotes and collections
  • Researchers hidden in our midst
  • The secret wonders of names
  • The invisible world
  • References


Some of the recent award-winning books penned by Ruth Finnegan are Black Inked Pearl, Pearl of the Seas, The Helix Pearl, Pearl of the Wind, Why Do We Quote, The Travels and Travails of Music, Communicating, Oral Poetry, The Hidden Musicians, and more.

Readers can order The Hidden Ordinary: Reflections in Anthropology from Amazon. Click here to place an order:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Hidden-Ordinary-Reflections-anthropology-ebook/dp/B07WYZJVF4?utm_source=sendfox&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=the-hidden-ordinary-owgra-report-june-2020 

About Ruth Finnegan:

Ruth Finnegan OBE is a renowned scholar and celebrated writer who is Emeritus Professor, the Open University, a Fellow of the British Academy, and an Honorary Fellow of Somerville College Oxford. She was recently elected as one of the first four International Fellows of the American Folklore Society, a much-valued honor. Ruth Finnegan was born in Derry and spent her childhood in the remote countryside of Donegal where she spent the war years. She studied at the Quaker school in York where she learned to read the resonant poetry of Yeats and Shakespeare and to repeat texts that she had to learn, aloud, the probable reason for the sonic style of her novels. Ruth Finnegan earned top degrees in classics and anthropology at Oxford and carried out fieldwork on story-telling in Africa. From 1969, apart from three years in the South Pacific island of Fiji, she taught and researched at the pioneering Open University. 

Ruth Finnegan has authored over twenty academic books, several of them prize-winning. She has three daughters (two of them born in Nigeria), five grandchildren (one in New Zealand), and now lives in Old Bletchley, England, with her husband of over 50 years.

Media Contact
Company Name: Faculty of Social Sciences, The Open University/Callender Press
Contact Person: Dr Ruth Finnegan (David Campbell Callender)
Email: Send Email
Phone: 01908372605
Address:125 Church Green Road
City: Milton Keynes MK36DE
State: England
Country: United Kingdom
Website: http://www.ruthhfinnegan.com/