[13][14] From 1952 until 1984 she wrote on various subjects for Melbourne's The Age,[15][16] contributed a regular stamp column to The Argus newspaper,[17] and collaborated on radio plays with Morris West before he became a best-selling author.

[32] She interviewed at length a number of significant figures for her writings including Zelman Cowan,[33] poet Dimitris Tsaloumas,[34] book designer and illustrator Alison Forbes,[35] actor Barry Humphries,[36][37] TV presenter Don Lane,[38] production designer John Truscott,[39] authors June Drummond[40] and Ruth Rendell,[41] young artist and curator-to-be Ron Radford,[42] dancers Garth Welch[43] and Robert Helpmann,[44] conductor Helen Quach,[45] and soprano Joan Carden.

[49] Ruskin was a guest lecturer at the January 1975 Journalism Summer School conducted by Patrick Tennison at the YMCA National College in Albert Road, South Melbourne.

'[25] When the Freedom to Read Association held its first meeting in the Melbourne Town Hall in 1964 she was one of five speakers giving a critical appraisal of books which were banned in Australia; The Bulletin reported that "Mrs Ruskin is a mother of four who combines housekeeping with an active career in journalism.

"[11] In 1979 she defended against objections by Morris Lurie of her choice, as one of two judges, of Sir John Kerr as joint winner of the Fellowship of Australian Writers of the A$500 Con Weickhardt Award for biography, autobiography or memoir; she called Lurie's protest "an outrageous attitude taking his political views where they have no place," stressing that though she couldn't abide Kerr as a public figure and voted for Gough Whitlam in 1975, they had unanimously awarded the book the prize on its literary merit.

[54] As a regular reviewer of ballet,[43] opera[55] and theatre[56] Ruskin consequently became a judge of the Green Room Awards that recognise and reward talent in the various sectors of the arts.