Writer Ruth Prawer Jhabvala dies at 85

Writer Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, whose scripts for Howards End and A Room With A View earned her two Oscars, has died.

The 85-year-old made more than 20 films with producer Ismail Merchant and director James Ivory over 40 years.

She also won the Booker Prize for her 1975 novel Heat and Dust, meaning she was the only person to have won an Oscar and the Booker.

Born in Germany, she fled the Nazis as a schoolgirl and spent much of her life in India. She died at home in New York.

She had been suffering from a pulmonary disorder and is survived by husband Cyrus and daughters Renana, Ava and Firoza-Bibi.

Born into a Jewish family, she fled Nazi Germany in 1939 with her parents and brother to begin a new life in Britain.

After meeting her future husband in London, Jhabvala moved with him to his native India in the 1950s, where she was visited by Merchant and Ivory to ask if they could make a film of her 1960 novel The Householder.

She agreed to write the screenplay and it was to mark the beginning of a fruitful partnership.

The trio's films included A Room With a View and Howards End, for which Jhabvala collected the Academy Award in 1987 and 1993 respectively. Both were adapted from novels by EM Forster.

She was nominated for a third Oscar in 1994 for the script for The Remains of the Day.