Bernice Rubens
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Bernice Rubens was for a short time my English teacher at Burgess Hill School, an eccentric progressive school in Hampstead, writes Nicholas Tucker [further to the obituary by Peter Guttridge and Dame Beryl Bainbridge, 15 October]. A fiery, determined presence fresh from her university course, she took some time to adapt to our informal educational ways.
After an unsuccessful lesson on the principles of parsing, she took the unheard of step of setting the resident school clown an essay on discipline by way of punishment. When it came back, it consisted of two large ink blots. Over the first, he had written, "I think Bernice is lousy"; over the second, "And discipline." Faced by the enormity of such cheek, Bernice simply had to laugh. After that, she became more relaxed. Asked when her future husband was going to give her an engagement ring, she replied, "When he gets it off the chicken's leg."
Later on, despite never having had a dancing lesson in her life, she appeared briefly on the London stage performing the dance of the seven veils in Oscar Wilde's play Salome. The progress of each discarded veil was faithfully recorded in a two-page picture spread in Illustrated, a popular magazine at the time. I bought my own copy, partly to boast to friends at different schools about my new English teacher. Shortly afterwards she left, by now a popular as well as a glamorous figure in all our lives.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments