Ruth Prawer Jhabvala

Ruth Prawer Jhabvala Biography

Ruth Prawer Jhabvala was a German-born writer and screenwriter who lived in India for 24 years from 1951. Her first novel, To Whom She Will, was published in India in 1955. Since then she has authored many books while staying in India. She also wrote a few books related to Indian subjects, such as Esmond in India (1957), followed by The Householder (1960) and Get Ready for the Battle (1963). The Householder was adapted as a screenplay for a movie by Merchant and Ivory in 1963. Ruth Prawer is a Booker prize winner. She is an Academy Award-winning screenwriter, who won the awards twice, and is known for her long collaboration with Merchant Ivory Productions. She was married to Indian-Parsi architect Cyrus S. H. Jhabvala.

Ruth Prawer Jhabvala was born in Cologne, Prussia Germany to Jewish parents. She was born on 7 May 1927. Her father was a lawyer. During her childhood she has witnessed a lot of violence in her country, related to political issues. Her family was among the last group of refugees to flee the Nazi regime in 1939 immigrating to Britain. She is the younger sister of Siegbert Salomon Prawer, a professor at the University of Oxford. During World War II, Prawer lived in Hendon in London, and later mostly used English for her communications rather than her mother tongue German. She became a British citizen in 1948. Her father committed suicide the following year.

She completed her graduation in English literature from Queen Mary College, and moved to India the same year. She married Cyrus S. H. Jhabvala, an Indian-Parsi architect and got settled in Delhi with three daughters. She recorded her experiences in India through her published books, and most of them met with critical acclaim. She wrote more than 12 novels, 23 screenplays, and eight collections of short stories.  In 1975, she received Man Booker Prize for her book, Heat and Dust. Its screen adaption earned her BAFTA in 1984. She received Academy Awards for A Room with a View and Howards End. Jhabvala moved to New York in 1975 and lived there until her death in 2013.

Published: November 03, 2018

Updated: November 03, 2018