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