Silvia Rodgers

German-British writer (1928–2006)

The Right Honourable The Lady Rodgers of Quarry Bank FRSL
Born	Silvia Szulman (1928-03-03)3 March 1928
Died	8 October 2006(2006-10-08) (aged 78)
Occupation(s)	Political activist and hostess; writer; anthropologist; dentist; sculptor
Notable work	Red Saint, Pink Daughter

Silvia Rodgers, Baroness Rodgers of Quarry Bank, FRSL (née Szulman; 3 March 1928 – 8 October 2006), was a German-British writer and political activist. She was married to the politician Bill Rodgers, Baron Rodgers of Quarry Bank.

Early life

Rodgers was born in Wedding (Berlin) to working-class Jewish parents.^[1] Her parents were members of the Communist Party of Germany.^[2]^[3] Her mother insisted that Silvia not participate in the Nazi salute at school.^[3] In an afterword to her memoir, Rodgers wrote "When I was ten and still in Berlin, I had that feeling that there was nothing I could not do".^[4]

The family came to Britain in 1939.^[5]

Marriage and political involvement

Silvia Szulman and Bill Rodgers married in 1955.^[5] The couple had three daughters: Rachel, Lucy and Juliet.^[1]

Rodgers influenced her husband's political career, particularly his decision to leave the Labour Party and set up the Social Democratic Party.^[1] Bill Rodgers said that most of the child-rearing fell to Silvia and that he was neglectful; she also worked as a dentist when he was first in parliament as they were not well-off.^[6] She was noted as a political hostess.^[1]^[5] Rodgers described herself as feeling like an outsider, dislocated and marginal.^[1]^[4]

Artistic career

Rodgers was a sculptor.^[5]

Research and writing

Rodgers completed a PhD in anthropology at Oxford, on the subject of the rituals of ship-launching: The symbolism of ship launching in the Royal Navy (1983).^[1]

She was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.^[1]

Her writings include:

"Women's space in a men's house: the British House of Commons" (1981), in Women and Space: Ground Rules and Social Maps, ed. Ardener, S
A memoir, Red Saint, Pink Daughter: a communist childhood in Berlin and London (1996), joint winner of the Jewish Quarterly-Wingate Prize for Non-Fiction (1997)^[7]^[8]^[9]
The Politician's Wife: life with Bill Rodgers (2007)

References

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g Seaton, Jean (9 October 2006). "Silvia Rodgers". The Guardian. Retrieved 20 February 2019.
^ King, Anthony (2006). "The Outsider as Political Leader: the case of Margaret Thatcher". In Berman, Larry (ed.). The Art of Political Leadership: Essays in Honor of Fred I. Greenstein. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 9780742539648. Retrieved 20 February 2019.
^ ^a ^b Snowman, Daniel (2003). The Hitler Emigrés: The Cultural Impact on Britain of Refugees from Nazism. Random House. ISBN 9781446405918. Retrieved 20 February 2019.
^ ^a ^b Rodgers, Silvia (1997). "Dancing in the Margins". Red Saint, Pink Daughter.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d "Lady Rodgers of Quarry Bank". The Times. 10 October 2006. Retrieved 20 February 2019.
^ "RODGERS, William (b.1928)". The History of Parliament. Retrieved 20 February 2019.
^ Rodgers, Silvia (1997). "DANCING IN THE MARGINS: Disentangling Berlin, London, the Holocaust and Life as an MP's Wife". Jewish Quarterly. 44 (3): 52–56. doi:10.1080/0449010X.1997.10706147 (inactive 31 January 2024). Retrieved 20 February 2019.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of January 2024 (link)
^ "Jewish Quarterly Literary Prize Winners 1996 – 2000 inclusive"
^ "News in Brief:Literary prize withdrawn for writer's 'work of fiction'". The Guardian. 29 April 2000. Retrieved 27 September 2012.