When I Grow Up: A Memoir

(Hardback)

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Description

'My mother said I was over imaginative, but I was simply a liar by nature. I was happily at home with mendacity. It was less boring than the truth. My natural home lay in fiction.' Booker-prize winning writer Bernice Rubens' poignant, evocative and funny memoir reveals not only many of the origins of her darkly brilliant novels, but brings to life her war-time childhood, her work as a film-maker and her deep friendships - and some equally deep enmities - in the literary world which she enlivened so magnificently. Bernice Rubens died in the autumn of 2004, very soon after completing WHEN I GROW UP.

Reviews

'[H]ugely enjoyable. Rubens delivers her life story in the warm, direct, assured style of her novels, slipping into her old style so naturally that you may forget you're reading a memoir' GUARDIAN

'Rubens was valiant, fierce and humorous ... an engaging self-portrait, her memoir is a small triumph' SUNDAY TELEGRAPH

Reading Bernice Rubens is like playing grandmother's footsteps. You just wish that she hadn't already touched the finishing line' OBSERVER

'Friends and admirers of her work can hear her voice again: sad, funny, indiscreet' DAILY MAIL

'Poignant ... From beyond the grave, Rubens's hurting heart still

sings - and cheers us on' THE TIMES

Author Bio

Bernice Rubens was born in Wales. Her novels include the Booker-Prize winning THE ELECTED MEMBER and A FIVE YEAR SENTENCE, which was shortlisted for the same award.