![The Conjunction](/sites/default/files/styles/2_3_media_tiny/public/images/the_conjunction.jpg?itok=vY9Bz5d_ 98w, /sites/default/files/styles/2_3_media_small/public/images/the_conjunction.jpg?itok=2D4Yn8_X 121w, /sites/default/files/styles/2_3_media_medium/public/images/the_conjunction.jpg?itok=EpiF-RxT 157w, /sites/default/files/styles/2_3_media_large/public/images/the_conjunction.jpg?itok=cJQ9HOZF 171w, /sites/default/files/styles/2_3_media_x_large/public/images/the_conjunction.jpg?itok=qw37sG7J 216w, /sites/default/files/styles/2_3_media_huge/public/images/the_conjunction.jpg?itok=ziEetVwD 283w)
Bernice Rubens
The prize had its first female winner when Bernice Rubens triumphed with The Elected Member, a tale of a man suffering amphetamine psychosis who sees silverfish everywhere.
Rubens, the daughter of two Eastern European emigrants, was born in Cardiff and made her way to fiction after spells as a grammar-school teacher and documentary maker. Her win showed that from the start the Booker Prize was not afraid of being challenging: the travails of her unhinged central character, Norman Zweck, do not make for easy reading.
Rubens was, however, clear-sighted, not least about her own writing, which she judged: ‘Better than most, not as good as some.’
Winner The Booker Prize 1970
By A.L. Barker
By Iris Murdoch