Anecdotes

She was born into a Jewish family which fled Nazi Germany in 1939 to begin a new life in Britain. She met her future husband in London, and they moved to his native India in the 1950s.

The screenwriting partner of the Merchant Ivory production team.

She was approached by Merchant and Ivory for permission to make a film of her 1960 novel "The Householder". She agreed to write the screenplay for The Householder (1963), and it was the beginning of a successful partnership.

Became a U.S Citizen in 1986.

Both of her Academy Award wins were for adapted screenplays of E.M. Forster novels.

She was awarded the C.B.E. (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) in the 1998 Queen's Honours List for her services to Literature.

She studied English literature at St. Mary College, University of London, and received her degree in 1951.

She was awarded the Booker Prize for her novel, "Heat and Dust," in 1975.