Doris Lessing
Doris Lessing (1919-2013) is the author of more than twenty novels, as well as autobiogrpahy, poetry, drama, non-fiction and short story collections. She was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2007. Her first contribution to Granta was a short story in 1984, and her last was a ‘London View’ in 2008. Her most notable works include The Grass Is Singing, The Golden Notebook, The Good Terrorist and a five novel series known as Canopus in Argos.
Doris Lessing on Granta.com
Essays & Memoir | The Online Edition
Impertinent Daughters
Doris Lessing
‘She loved examinations, came first in class, adored mathematics, and was expected for a time to become a professional pianist.’
Essays & Memoir | The Online Edition
Under Another Name
Doris Lessing
‘No, Jane Somers is not my mother, but thoughts of women like my mother fed Jane Somers.’
Fiction | The Online Edition
Jane Somers’s Diaries
Doris Lessing
‘I had never thought that before, never felt life in that way, as I did then; washing Maudie Fowler, a fierce angry old woman.’
Essays & Memoir | The Online Edition
Doris Lessing | A London View
Doris Lessing
‘No one driving along it could possibly guess the truth.’
Essays & Memoir | The Online Edition
The Death of a Chair
Doris Lessing
‘To attack the chair I equipped myself with a saw, sharp scissors and a claw hammer.’
Essays & Memoir | The Online Edition
The Roads of London
Doris Lessing
‘You could not get a decent cup of coffee anywhere in the British Isles.’
Essays & Memoir | The Online Edition
Chickens and Eggs
Doris Lessing
‘Twenty-one days it takes to hatch eggs, twenty-one nights, and there sits the great fierce hen who had accepted me as protector and jailer for that time.’
Essays & Memoir | The Online Edition
Events in the Skies
Doris Lessing
‘He told me that when he remembered his childhood that aeroplane was in the sky.’
Essays & Memoir | The Online Edition
My Mother’s Life (Part Two)
Doris Lessing
‘‘No, you can not,’ said my mother, ‘we can't afford it.’ Prophets are never appreciated by their nearest and dearest.’