Doris Lessing is one of the most important writers of the second half of the twentieth century. Her first novel, ‘The Grass is Singing’ was published in 1950, and since then her international reputation has flourished. Among her other celebrated novels are ‘The Golden Notebook’, ‘The Summer Before the Dark’, and ‘Memoirs of a Survivor’. Her most recent works include ‘Love, Again’ and two volumes of her autobiography, ‘Under my Skin’, and ‘Walking in the Shade’.
Doris Lessing in our features
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Latest from Doris Lessing
- Doris Lessing's Golden Notebook, 50 years on read more...
- John Mullan's 10 of the best: nightmares read more...
- From the archive, 19 October 1984: Booker Prize awarded to a 6-1 outsider read more...
- Doris Lessing | Top 100 women read more...
![Cover of: THE GRANDMOTHERS [ePub edition]](http://images.harpercollins.co.uk/hcwebimages/HCCOVERS/058200/058262-FC222.jpg)
THE GRANDMOTHERS [ePub edition]
With the four short novels in this collection, Doris Lessing once again proves that she is unequalled in her ability to capture the truth of the human condition.
Publication date: UK 29th Mar 2012
ON CATS [ePub edition]
![Cover of: ON CATS [ePub edition]](http://images.harpercollins.co.uk/hcwebimages/HCCOVERS/058200/058224-FC63.jpg)
A collection of Doris Lessing’s charming and celebrated writings about cats.
Publication date: UK 29th Mar 2012
BEN, IN THE WORLD [ePub edition]
![Cover of: BEN, IN THE WORLD [ePub edition]](http://images.harpercollins.co.uk/hcwebimages/HCCOVERS/057700/057755-FC63.jpg)
A sequel to one of Lessing’s most celebrated novels, ‘The Fifth Child’.
Publication date: UK 29th Mar 2012
THE GOLDEN NOTEBOOK [ePub edition]
![Cover of: THE GOLDEN NOTEBOOK [ePub edition]](http://images.harpercollins.co.uk/hcwebimages/HCCOVERS/056800/056826-FC63.jpg)
‘The Golden Notebook’, the landmark novel by Nobel Prize winner Doris Lessing, is a powerful account of a woman searching for her personal, political and professional identity amid the trauma of emotional rejection and sexual betrayal.
Publication date: UK 30th Jan 2012
THE GOOD TERRORIST [ePub edition]
![Cover of: THE GOOD TERRORIST [ePub edition]](http://images.harpercollins.co.uk/hcwebimages/HCCOVERS/058100/058118-FC63.jpg)
A hugely significant political novel for the late twentieth-century from one of the outstanding writers of the modern era and Winner of the Nobel Prize for Fiction 2007.
Publication date: UK 30th Jan 2012
LOVE, AGAIN [ePub edition]
![Cover of: LOVE, AGAIN [ePub edition]](http://images.harpercollins.co.uk/hcwebimages/HCCOVERS/058800/058808-FC63.jpg)
A fierce, compelling account of the nature and origins of love from Doris Lessing, one of the most acclaimed authors of the twentieth-century and Winner of the Nobel Pize for Literature 2007.
Publication date: UK 30th Jan 2012
THE FIFTH CHILD [ePub edition]
![Cover of: THE FIFTH CHILD [ePub edition]](http://images.harpercollins.co.uk/hcwebimages/HCCOVERS/058000/058001-FC63.jpg)
A classic tale from Doris Lessing, Winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature 2007, of a family torn apart by the arrival of Ben, their feral fifth child.
Publication date: UK 30th Jan 2012
THE GRASS IS SINGING [ePub edition]
![Cover of: THE GRASS IS SINGING [ePub edition]](http://images.harpercollins.co.uk/hcwebimages/HCCOVERS/058300/058393-FC63.jpg)
The classic first novel from the winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature 2007.
Publication date: UK 30th Jan 2012
ALFRED AND EMILY
The first book after Doris Lessing’s Nobel Prize takes her back to her childhood in Southern Africa and the lives, both fictional and factual, that her parents lead.
Publication date: UK 5th Mar 2009
TIME BITES: Views and Reviews [ePub edition]
![Cover of: TIME BITES: Views and Reviews [ePub edition]](http://images.harpercollins.co.uk/hcwebimages/HCCOVERS/044200/044282-FC63.jpg)
Assembled here for the first time in book form are the very best of several decades' worth of occasional writings from perhaps the best-loved and most-admired of Britain's great female writers
Publication date: UK 5th Feb 2009
ON CATS [New edition]
![Cover of: ON CATS [New edition]](http://images.harpercollins.co.uk/hcwebimages/HCCOVERS/043000/043083-FC63.jpg)
A collection of Doris Lessing’s charming and celebrated writings about cats.
Publication date: UK 20th Oct 2008
THE CLEFT [ePub edition]
![Cover of: THE CLEFT [ePub edition]](http://images.harpercollins.co.uk/hcwebimages/HCCOVERS/042700/042714-FC63.jpg)
Doris Lessing, one of England's finest living novelists, invites us to imagine a mythical society free from sexual intrigue, free from jealousy, free from petty rivalries: a society free from men.
Publication date: UK 4th Sep 2008
ALFRED AND EMILY [ePub edition]
![Cover of: ALFRED AND EMILY [ePub edition]](http://images.harpercollins.co.uk/hcwebimages/HCCOVERS/042200/042231-FC63.jpg)
The first book after Doris’ Nobel Prize takes her back to her childhood in Southern Africa and the lives, both fictional and factual, that her parents lead.
Publication date: UK 4th Sep 2008
THE CLEFT
Doris Lessing, one of England's finest living novelists, invites us to imagine a mythical society free from sexual intrigue, free from jealousy, free from petty rivalries: a society free from men.
Publication date: UK 7th Jan 2008
Harper Perennial Modern Classics — THE GOOD TERRORIST
A hugely significant political novel for the late twentieth-century from one of the outstanding writers of the modern era and Winner of the Nobel Prize for Fiction 2007.
Publication date: UK 18th Jun 2007
Harper Perennial Modern Classics — THE GOLDEN NOTEBOOK
‘The Golden Notebook’, the landmark novel by Nobel Prize winner Doris Lessing, is a powerful account of a woman searching for her personal, political and professional identity amid the trauma of emotional rejection and sexual betrayal.
Publication date: UK 18th Jun 2007
THE STORY OF GENERAL DANN AND MARA'S DAUGHTER, GRIOT AND THE SNOW DOG
A fascinating novel of love and ecology from one of the twentieth century’s greatest writers.
Publication date: UK 19th Jun 2006
TIME BITES: Views and Reviews
Assembled here for the first time in book form are the very best of several decades' worth of occasional writings from perhaps the best-loved and most-admired of Britain's great female writers.
Publication date: UK 17th Oct 2005
THE GRANDMOTHERS
With the four short novels in this collection, Doris Lessing once again proves that she is unequalled in her ability to capture the truth of the human condition.
Publication date: UK 18th Oct 2004