A Stranger at Home

Byline: By Mario Basini Western Mail

The terrified residents of a Cardiff street in World War Two who had cowered in their cellars while German bombers had unleashed their deadly cargoes triumphantly broke into 'There'll always be an England' once the danger had passed.

Among them was the young Bernice Rubens, the daughter of an immigrant from Latvia, who already showed the born-writer's ability to record the telling details of life around her.

She would go on to become one of the best English-language novelists of her generation, the winner of the coveted Booker Prize. She was also a documentary film-maker who travelled the world in search of her subjects. But throughout her long life - she was officially 76 when she died in October last year, but her true age was almost certainly 81 - she remained the young girl caught in that cellar.

She was, as she confesses in her latest book, as confused about her national identity as her …

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Publication information: Article title: A Stranger at Home. Contributors: Not available. Newspaper title: Western Mail (Cardiff, Wales). Publication date: November 19, 2005. Page number: 14. © 2009 MGN Ltd. COPYRIGHT 2005 Gale Group.

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