Colourful, imaginative, vibrant, delicate and dramatic – these are just some of the hallmarks of the artworks that have garnered international accolades for Ardmore Ceramic Art in rural KwaZulu-Natal. It is here, in South Africa’s most successful ceramics studio set in the verdant Midlands, that exquisitely handcrafted and highly detailed figurative works and functional ware are created by more than fifty artists who draw on Zulu traditions and folklore, history, the natural world, and their own lives for inspiration. In turn, it is the lives of the sculptors and painters of Ardmore that fire the vision of the woman behind it all: Fée Halsted is an artist whose love of teaching and determination to fight poverty and AIDS have set others on the path of creative self-discovery and ultimately worldwide acclaim. Ardmore – We are because of others tells the extraordinary story of this famous studio – from its humble beginnings in a poverty-stricken corner of South Africa to its fame as a producer of exceptional and irresistible objets d’art prized by collectors, galleries and museums throughout the world. It is also the story of the indomitable Fée Halsted who is the driving force behind the enterprise, and the artists whose inventive spirit and fearless creativity are at the heart of Ardmore. Fée Halsted graduated with a BA (Fine Art) from the University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg (now the University of KwaZulu-Natal), in 1981 and completed an Advanced Diploma in ceramics in 1983. She lectured at the former Durban Technikon before establishing Ardmore Ceramic Art along with Bonnie Ntshalintshali in 1985. In 1990 the duo was jointly awarded the prestigious Standard Bank Young Artist Award. In 2010, in recognition of her work at Ardmore and for her efforts to empower women and uplift the lives of their families, Fée was honoured by the Philadelphia-based international nongovernmental organisation, Women’s Campaign International. To date she has participated in more than 60 national and international exhibitions and biennales, and Ardmore ceramics can now be found in several major public collections and museums, including the Museum of Cultures in Basel, Switzerland, the Museum of Arts and Design in New York, USA, the Hetjens Museum in Düsseldorf, Germany, the South African National Gallery, the Johannesburg Art Gallery and the Standard Bank Collection, as well as in a number of private collections.

Although part of the Chickasaw Nation, virgin soil lured pioneers into Indian Territory, and by 1900, intruders outnumbered Native Americans 10 to 1, building communities throughout Native American lands. In 1887, on a grassy prairie where buffalo had roamed, men gathered where the Santa Fe Railroad planned to build a station. By 1898, Ardmore was a thriving city with businesses, churches, electricity, and telephones. Under a new federal law in late 1898, Ardmore became an incorporated city. Several disasters including a massive explosion and two major fires almost destroyed the town, but the people who built Ardmore came from sturdy stock. After each disaster, they rebuilt, and Ardmore continued to prosper.

On a stormy night in October 1904 flames arose abruptly on the west side of the Ardmore Manor House of Lord William Le Poer Trench, the site of the first Ardmore Golf Course. In hellish flames the most magnificent Edwardian home of Vancouver Island and Ardmore was 'gone with the wind'. Ardmore: Home, Community and Golf is a book about the Ardmore region on the Saanich Peninsula - a region with a history of arson, scandal, racism, farming, the Du Temple family and the early days of golfing on Vancouver Island....

Aidan, Shawn, and Darcy run the family pub in a pretty seaside village where the magic of Ireland weaves a spell of passion and discovery in this collection that includes all three novels in #1 New York Times bestselling author Nora Roberts’ Gallaghers of Ardmore trilogy. JEWELS OF THE SUN Aidan Gallagher possesses an uncommon understanding of his country’s haunting myths. Although he’s devoted to managing the family pub, a hint of wildness still glints in his eyes—and in American Jude Murray, he sees a woman who can both soothe his heart and stir his blood... TEARS OF THE MOON Dreamer Shawn Gallagher and the clear-minded Brenna O’Toole have known each other all their lives. But now they’ll have to look at each other with different eyes and accept each other with selfless hearts to earn the gift of love... HEART OF THE SEA All of her life, Darcy Gallagher has wanted more, and made no secret of her hope to find a rich man. But now that she’s met Trevor Magee, it’s a matter of hearts that must be won—his as well as hers...

The life of Saint Declan, another much loved saint of Ireland, with St Mochuda's life as an additional benefit. Straight from the ancient manuscript tradition. Callender Saints / Callender Mediaeval texts

Five miles or less to the east of Youghal Harbour, on the southern Irish coast, a short, rocky and rather elevated promontory juts, with a south-easterly trend, into the ocean [± 51° 57’ N / 7° 43’ W]. Maps and admiralty charts call it Ram Head, but the real name is Ceann-a-Rama and popularly it is often styled Ardmore Head. The material of this inhospitable coast is a hard metamorphic schist which bids defiance to time and weather. Landwards the shore curves in clay cliffs to the north-east, leaving, between it and the iron headland beyond, a shallow exposed bay wherein many a proud ship has met her doom. Nestling at the north side of the headland and sheltered by the latter from Atlantic storms stands one of the most remarkable groups of ancient ecclesiastical remains in Ireland—all that has survived of St. Declan’s holy city of Ardmore.