Gerda Charles was the

pseudonym A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person or group assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true name (orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individua ...

of Edna Lipson (10 March 1915 – 4 November 1996), an award-winning

Anglo-Jewish British Jews (often referred to collectively as British Jewry or Anglo-Jewry) are British citizens who identify as Jewish. The number of people who identified as Jews in the United Kingdom rose by just under 4% between 2001 and 2021. History ...

novelist and author. She was born in

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

and was daughter of Harold Lipson and Gertrude Caplan who had married in Ormskirk in 1914. At some point her parents' marriage ended as by 1939 Gertrude Lipson was classified as divorced in the electoral records. For some years in the 1930s Edna and her mother ran a commercial hotel at 81 Mount Pleasant, Liverpool. After the war they both moved to London and Edna began attending evening classes in literature and writing at Morley College. She published her first novel, ''The True Voice'' in 1959. ''A Slanting Light'', her third novel, won the

James Tait Black Memorial Prize The James Tait Black Memorial Prizes are literary prizes awarded for literature written in the English language. They, along with the Hawthornden Prize, are Britain's oldest literary awards. Based at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, Uni ...

in 1963. She met further success with the publication of ''The Destiny Waltz'' which won the inaugural Whitbread Novel of the Year award in 1971. Lipson worked as a journalist and reviewer for various newspapers such as the ''

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'', ''

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'', ''

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'' and '' Jewish Chronicle''. She also edited an anthology of modern Jewish short stories. Edna Lipson never married and lived with her mother until the latter's death in 1981. Lipson died on 4 November 1996. She is regarded as one of the chroniclers of the Anglo-Jewish experience, alongside writers such as

Emanuel Litvinoff Emanuel Litvinoff (5 May 1915 – 24 September 2011) was a British writer and well-known figure in Anglo-Jewish literature, known for novels, short stories, poetry, plays and human rights campaigning. Early years Litvinoff's early years in what ...

Bernice Rubens Bernice Rubens (26 July 1923 – 13 October 2004) was a Welsh novelist.She became the first woman to win the Booker Prize in 1970, for '' The Elected Member''. Personal history Bernice Ruth Reuben was born in Splott, Cardiff on 26 July 19 ...

Bernard Kops Bernard Kops (born 28 November 1926) is a British dramatist, memoirist, poet and novelist. Early life Born in the East End of London, the son of Dutch-Jewish immigrants, Kops was evacuated from London in 1939, and recounted that experience in e ...

and

Arnold Wesker Sir Arnold Wesker (24 May 1932 – 12 April 2016) was an English dramatist. He was the author of 50 plays, four volumes of short stories, two volumes of essays, much journalism and a book on the subject, a children's book, some poetry, and oth ...

. Her posthumous papers reside in a collection at the

University of Reading The University of Reading is a public university in Reading, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1892 as University College, Reading, a University of Oxford extension college. The institution received the power to grant its own degrees in 192 ...

library. The collection consists of miscellaneous literary papers, with periodicals, press cuttings and personal correspondence.

Tel Aviv University Tel Aviv University (TAU) ( he, אוּנִיבֶרְסִיטַת תֵּל אָבִיב, ''Universitat Tel Aviv'') is a public research university in Tel Aviv, Israel. With over 30,000 students, it is the largest university in the country. Locate ...

also inaugurated an award called the Gerda Charles Award.

Works

Novels

* ''The True Voice'' (1959) * ''The Crossing Point'' (1961) * ''A Slanting Light'' (1963) * ''A Logical Girl'' (1966) * ''The Destiny Waltz'' (1971)

Anthologies edited

* ''Modern Jewish Stories'' (1963) * ''Great Short Stories of the World'' (1976)

Awards

(1963) - ''A Slanting Light'' * Whitbread Prize, Best Novel (1971) - ''The Destiny Waltz''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Charles, Gerda 1914 births 1996 deaths English women novelists Writers from Liverpool James Tait Black Memorial Prize recipients 20th-century English women writers 20th-century English novelists