Doris Lessing

Name at birth: Doris May Tayler

When Doris Lessing won the Nobel Prize for literature in 2007, the Nobel committee described her as "that epicist of the female experience, who with scepticism, fire and visionary power has subjected a divided civilisation to scrutiny." Doris Lessing was born in Persia (now Iran) and grew up on a farm in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). Her parents were British citizens. She left school and home at an early age, marrying twice (and taking the name of her second husband, Gottfried Lessing) before finally moving to England in 1949. There she began her career as a novelist, publishing The Grass is Singing in 1950. During the 1950s, Doris Lessing worked on what were to become five novels in the Children of Violence series, and in 1962 she gained international notice for her novel The Golden Notebook. Her novels touch on issues of race and politics (she was a Communist in the 1940s and 1950s), and also on her search for meaning as a writer and a woman; she was considered a heroic figure by feminists. Doris Lessing continued to write novels, graphic novels, librettos and essays throughout the 20th century and into the 21st, including works influenced by science fiction and Sufi mysticism. She also published the memoirs Under My Skin (1995) and Walking in the Shade (2000).