It had a car, a fridge, a telephone and a new house in the middle-class suburb of Penylan. Each August the family would decamp to Porthcawl, 30 miles from Cardiff, for the month Eli would join them at weekends. Her English teacher inspired her love of literature but Rubens also “loved” grammar because “it tunes the ear, rather like doing a good crossword”. She thrived at the high school and she played in the school orchestra.Rubens did well in her School Certificate – English, French and History – so well that she got scholarships to go to Cardiff University. She took her degree in English and often said she didn’t find the fact she was still living at home a hindrance to her social life. (Although she also said that she was a “good” girl.) She spent a lot of time in the union and was president of both the socialist and music societies.Later, she regretted studying English.
“It is very hard to sit down and write with George Eliot breathing down your neck.” She got a 2:1 and toyed with the idea of doing a doctorate but decided it was too much work.After the Second World War the family became more prosperous. He had brought a violin with him to England and the children were encouraged to play music. Her brothers and sister all later became professional musicians She did play cello and piano, but not to the same standard. “I was brought up in a kind of isolated state inasmuch as I was the only non-musician,” she recalled. “But I became a listener, which is so important for a writer.”Rubens took her 11-plus early and went to Cardiff High School, which her sister Beryl also attended. Bernice Ruth Rubens, writer: born Cardiff 26 July 1923; FRSL 2001; married 1947 Rudolf Nassauer (died 1996; two daughters; marriage dissolved 1970); died London 13 October 2004.
Bernice Rubens was the prolific author of 25 novels who, paradoxically, wrote very slowly – regarding a good day as one in which she produced three decent sentences.
A Booker prizewinner in 1970 for her novel The Elected Member, she is probably best known for her second novel, Madame Sousatzka, which John Schlesinger filmed with Shirley MacLaine in the leading role in 1988.Her books veered intoxicatingly between serious history, wild black comedy and gothic excess. Because the family still had to be careful with money, the sisters shared the Panama hat that was obligatory wear in the summer term.Although she regarded the gym teacher as “a sadist”, Rubens was good at sport (she swam every morning for most of her life). Bernice went with him once: I saw for myself how very deeply he was loved by those families. They were chapel-going folk and my father was a religious Jew – maybe that was part of their close understanding. He was so soft-hearted that he would waive the last payments towards the end because the stuff was usually worn out by then.When she was four she went to kindergarten and at seven to Roath Park Primary, a tram-ride away from her home.Her father was a talented musician.
The family took in lodgers and her father made a living as a tallyman or credit draper. He would buy shirts or a pair of shoes and go into the valleys where he sold them to miners for a shilling a week. This is what is known in the industry as a shift from “above the line” spend to “below the line”. With fragmentation of mass media, especially television, corporations such as Unilever have to find alternative ways to market their goods.In PR, where the company’s assets include Citigate, the top City spin doctor, operating margins were up and the company is winning new business. The quality of the City PR is improving, in the sense that more of the turnover is coming from retained business rather than working on one-off projects, Mr Nichols said. However, Incepta’s fortunes are tied to the ebb and flow of the City and broader economy to a large extent and the recovery we have seen is pretty fragile, with major negative factors still to contend with, such as the high oil price At 72p, the shares are a hold..
Health CareHow to deal with the bill for caring for the nation’s sick has become one of the most pressing domestic issues in this political contest and Wall Street believes it is the area in which the election of Mr Kerry would have the most impact on business. Chief among the changes Mr Kerry has promised would be to force pharmaceutical companies to negotiate directly with the government over the cost of drugs. This would be a shift from the republican’s market-based approach, whereby producers strike deals with health insurers, and often involve a string of companies acting as brokers. According to analysts, Mr Kerry’s plan to cut out the middlemen would reduce prices by 10 to 15 per cent. Another likely blow to companies with lucrative patents outstanding is a promise by Mr Kerry to import drugs from countries such as Canada.
