Bernice Rubens

Bernice Rubens (26 July 1923 – 13 October 2004) was a Welsh novelist. She became the first woman to win the Booker Prize in 1970, for The Elected Member.

Personal life Bernice Ruth Reuben was born in Splott, Cardiff, Wales, on 26 July 1923 (though her obituary in The Independent notes that "she later said 1928", and several sources report her birth date as 26 July 1928),

She married Rudolf Nassauer, a wine merchant who also wrote poetry and fiction. As of 2024, Rubens is still the only Welsh author to have won the Booker Prize.

Throughout her life, Rubens ensured that she wrote every single day.

In June 2024, a Purple Plaque was installed on the house that was her family's home in Roath.

Adaptations Her 1962 novel, Madame Sousatzka, was made into a film in 1988, with Shabana Azmi and Shirley MacLaine. This book was based on the experiences of her brother Harold Rubens, a child prodigy pianist, and his teacher Madame Maria Levinskaya (died 1960) who inspired the character of Madame Sousatzka. Harold Rubens was born in Cardiff in 1918, and studied with Levinskaya from the age of seven. The musical Sousatzka was produced in Toronto in 2017. It was intended to be a pre-Broadway tryout for controversial producer Garth Drabinsky. Victoria Clark portrayed the title role.

Her 1975 novel, I Sent a Letter To My Love, was made into a film (Chère inconnue) in 1980 by Moshe Mizraki, starring Simone Signoret and Jean Rochefort.

Her 1985 novel, Mr Wakefield's Crusade, was adapted for television by the BBC in 1992, starring Peter Capaldi and Michael Maloney.

Works

Set on Edge (1960) Madame Sousatzka (1962) (filmed as Madame Sousatzka) Mate in Three (1966) Chosen People (1969) The Elected Member (1969) (Booker Prize for Fiction 1970) Sunday Best (1971) Go Tell the Lemming (1973) I Sent a Letter To My Love (1975) The Ponsonby Post (1977) A Five-Year Sentence (1978) Spring Sonata (1979) Birds of Passage (1981) Brothers (1983) Mr Wakefield's Crusade (1985) Our Father (1987) Kingdom Come (1990) A Solitary Grief (1991) Mother Russia (1992) Autobiopsy (1993) Hijack (1993) Yesterday in the Back Lane (1995) The Waiting Game (1997) I, Dreyfus (1999) Milwaukee (2001) Nine Lives (2002) The Sergeants' Tale (2003) When I Grow Up (2005)