biography
| name: |
Lessing, Doris (May)
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| |
née Tayler
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| sex:
| female
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| lived:
| (1919– )
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| biography:
| Writer, born in Kermanshah, W Iran. She lived on a farm in Rhodesia, and was married and divorced twice (Lessing is her second husband's name). Her first published novel was The Grass is Singing (1950), a study of white civilization in Africa, the theme of many early works. Her experiences of life in working-class London after her arrival in 1949 are described in In Pursuit of the English (1960). In 1952 she published the first in a series of the important Martha Quest novels, Children of Violence, which is semi-autobiographical and, typically, explores political and social undercurrents in contemporary society. Her many other novels include the popular The Golden Notebook (1962), and the later books London Observed (1992), Love, Again (1996), and Mara and Dann (1999). Her work also includes several collections of short stories, fantasies, and science fiction. She became a Companion of Honour in 1999. |
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