Doris Lessing

Name at birth: Doris May Taylor

Doris Lessing grew up in South Africa, the daughter of British citizens. She left school and home at an early age, finally moving to England in 1949. There she began her career as a novelist, publishing The Grass is Singing in 1950. During the 1950s she worked on what was to become 5 novels in the Children of Violence series, and in 1962 she gained international notice for her novel The Golden Notebook. Often cited as a heroic figure to feminists, Lessing has continued to write novels, graphic novels, librettos and essays, including works influenced by science fiction and Sufi mysticism. She won the Nobel Prize for literature in 2007.