Gladys Bronwyn Stern or GB Stern (17 June 1890 – 20 September 1973), born Gladys Bertha Stern in
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
, England, wrote many novels, short stories, plays, memoirs, biographies and literary criticism. The
National Portrait Gallery, London
The National Portrait Gallery (NPG) is an art gallery in London housing a collection of portraits of historically important and famous British people. It was arguably the first national public gallery dedicated to portraits in the world when it ...
holds four portraits of her.
Career
GB Stern was born on 17 June 1890 in
North Kensington
North Kensington is an area of west London. It is north of Notting Hill and south of Kensal Green and in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. The names North Kensington and Ladbroke Grove describe the same area.
North Kensington is w ...
, London, the second, by some years, of two sisters.
Her family lost their money in the Vaal River diamond crash. After that, they lived in a series of apartments, hotels and boarding houses. Gladys was schooled in England until the age of 16, when, with her parents, she traveled to the continent and studied in Germany and Switzerland.
She wrote her first novel, ''Pantomime'', in 1914 at the age of 24. Her first critical success came with ''Twos and Threes'' in 1916. Her most popular books were the series known by the name of the first, ''The Matriarch''. This was first published as ''Tents of Israel'' in 1924. The others in the series are ''A Deputy Was King'' (1926), ''Mosaic'' (1930), ''Shining and Free'' (1935) and ''The Young Matriarch'' (1942).
[Penguin edition biography]
''The Matriarch'' series revolved around the Rakonitz and Czelovar families and were based on her own family. They are well-to-do and cosmopolitan Jews who settled in England from Hungary, Poland, Russia, and Austria. Like her family, they suffer through an economic crash.
Julia Neuberger
Julia Babette Sarah Neuberger, Baroness Neuberger, (née Schwab; born 27 February 1950) was the second woman to be ordained as a Rabbi in the UK, and is a British member of the House of Lords. She previously took the Liberal Democrat whip, but re ...
. Introduction to ''The Matriarch'', Penguin 1987 edition.
The first book in the series, ''The Matriarch'', centers around two characters, the matriarch Anastasia and her granddaughter, Toni. Anastasia was based on Stern's great-aunt, who was incensed with the portrayal until the book became successful. The book describes in detail the complicated, florid and noisy life of this Jewish-English family through both triumphs and failures, weddings and funerals.
[Neuberger]
Stern's plays include ''
The Man Who Pays The Piper'' (1931), which was revived by the
Orange Tree Theatre
The Orange Tree Theatre is a 180-seat theatre at 1 Clarence Street, Richmond in south-west London, which was built specifically as a theatre in the round. It is housed within a disused 1867 primary school, built in Victorian Gothic style.
Th ...
in
Richmond, London
Richmond is a town in south-west London,The London Government Act 1963 (c.33) (as amended) categorises the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames as an Outer London borough. Although it is on both sides of the River Thames, the Boundary Commiss ...
in 2013.
With
Sheila Kaye-Smith
Sheila Kaye-Smith (4 February 1887 – 14 January 1956) was an English writer, known for her many novels set in the borderlands of Sussex and Kent in the English regional tradition. Her 1923 book ''The End of the House of Alard'' became a best- ...
she wrote the dialogues ''Talking of
Jane Austen
Jane Austen (; 16 December 1775 – 18 July 1817) was an English novelist known primarily for her six major novels, which interpret, critique, and comment upon the British landed gentry at the end of the 18th century. Austen's plots of ...
'' and ''More Talk of Jane Austen''. She also wrote a biography of
Robert Louis Stevenson
Robert Louis Stevenson (born Robert Lewis Balfour Stevenson; 13 November 1850 – 3 December 1894) was a Scottish novelist, essayist, poet and travel writer. He is best known for works such as ''Treasure Island'', ''Strange Case of Dr Jekyll a ...
.
Her final novel, ''Promise Not to Tell'', was published in 1964.
In 1934, ''
Long Lost Father'' was adapted into a
film of the same title by
RKO Pictures
RKO Radio Pictures Inc., commonly known as RKO Pictures or simply RKO, was an American film production and distribution company, one of the "Big Five" film studios of Hollywood's Golden Age. The business was formed after the Keith-Albee-Orphe ...
.
In 1947, ''
The Woman in the Hall
''The Woman in the Hall'' is a 1947 British drama film directed by Jack Lee and starring Ursula Jeans, Jean Simmons, Cecil Parker. The screenplay was written by Jack Lee, Ian Dalrymple and Gladys Bronwyn Stern, from Stern's 1939 novel of the ...
'' was released as a
film of the same title.
In 1966 her 1938 novel ''The Ugly Dachshund'' was made into a
film of the same title.
Personal life
She married
New Zealander
New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created.
New or NEW may refer to:
Music
* New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz
Albums and EPs
* ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013
* ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, ...
Geoffrey Lisle Holdsworth in 1919 and divorced him "fairly soon after". Her closest male friends were the playwright John van Druten and Jack Cohen.
A long-time friend was
Rebecca West
Dame Cicily Isabel Fairfield (21 December 1892 – 15 March 1983), known as Rebecca West, or Dame Rebecca West, was a British author, journalist, literary critic and travel writer. An author who wrote in many genres, West reviewed books ...
, who came to call her "Peter", as did most of Stern's friends. Stern went through a number of secretaries but Freda Bromhead managed to survive five years with her and came back to help her years later when Stern was in a nursing home.
Her family was never terribly religious and Stern herself disliked the word 'Jew' and preferred 'Israelite'.
In 1947 she converted to Catholicism. She wrote about the conversion in 1954 in ''All in Good Time''.
She died in
Wallingford, Oxfordshire
Wallingford () is a historic market town and civil parish located between Oxford and Reading on the River Thames in England. Although belonging to the historic county of Berkshire, it is within the ceremonial county of Oxfordshire for adminis ...
, England on 28 September 1973, at the age of 83.
Works
References
Sources
*
External links
*
*
*
Bibliography of GB Stern’s works
{{DEFAULTSORT:Stern, Gladys Bronwyn
1890 births
1973 deaths
20th-century English dramatists and playwrights
20th-century British short story writers
20th-century English novelists
20th-century English women writers
British women short story writers
Converts to Roman Catholicism from Judaism
English biographers
English literary critics
Women literary critics
English memoirists
English short story writers
English women dramatists and playwrights
English women journalists
English women non-fiction writers
English women novelists
People educated at Notting Hill & Ealing High School
People from Kensington
British women memoirists
Writers from London
British women biographers