Wales’ 17th Purple Plaque was unveiled in Cardiff on June 21st 2024 to mark the achievements of the first woman author from Wales (and the first author from Wales to date) to win the Booker Prize.
Bernice Rubens was born in Splott on 26 July 1923, the daughter of Jewish refugees – her mother’s family had fled Poland (apparently armed only with a sewing machine), her father arrived from Lithuania – he’d hoped for New York but found himself in Cardiff along with his two violins.
Bernice attended local schools including Cardiff High School for Girls before going on to study English at Cardiff University. She became a teacher and documentary writer and director before writing her first novel in 1960 when she was 37, after the birth of her two daughters.
She would go on to write 24 novels in all, with themes around family and Jewishness featuring heavily. Her Booker Prize for Fiction winning novel in 1970, ‘The Elected Member’, focuses on the struggles of a Jewish family in London’s East End. She was shortlisted for the Booker award again in 1978 for ‘A Five Year Sentence’.
Desert Island Discs: Bernice Rubens
Ar Fehefin yr 21ain 2024, dadorchuddiwyd y 17eg Plac Porffor yng Nghaerdydd i nodi camp y fenyw gyntaf o Gymru (a’r awdur cyntaf o Gymru hyd yma) i ennill Gwobr Booker.
Ganwyd Bernice Rubens yn y Sblot, Caerdydd ar 26 Gorffennaf 1923, yn ferch i fewnfudwyr Iddewig. Roedd teulu ei mam wedi ffoi o Wlad Pwyl (gyda dim ond eu peiriant gwnïo mae’n debyg), a chyrhaeddodd ei thad o Lithwania – roedd wedi bwriadu mynd i Efrog Newydd ond cafodd ei hun yng Nghaerdydd, fe a’i ddau ffidil.
Aeth Bernice i ysgolion lleol gan gynnwys Ysgol Uwchradd Caerdydd i Ferched cyn mynd ymlaen i astudio Saesneg yng Ngholeg y Brifysgol Caerdydd. Daeth yn athrawes ac yn awdur a chyfarwyddydd rhaglenni dogfen cyn ysgrifennu ei nofel gyntaf yn 1960 pan yr oedd hi’n 37, wedi genedigaeth ei dwy ferch.
Byddai’n mynd ymlaen i ysgrifennu 24 o nofelau i gyd, a rheini’n tynnu ar themâu yn ymwneud â theulu ac Iddewiaeth. Mae ei nofel fuddugol, ‘ The Elected Member’ a enillodd Wobr Ffuglen Booker yn 1970, yn canolbwyntio ar ymdrechion teulu Iddewig yn Nwyrain Llundain. Roedd hi ar y rhestr fer ar gyfer y Gwobr Booker eto yn 1978 gyda’i nofel ‘ A Five Year Sentence’.