Nobel Prize-winning author Doris Lessing was best known for works including The Golden Notebook, Memoirs of a Survivor and The Summer Before the Dark
The Nobel Prize-winning author Doris Lessing, whose works include The Golden Notebook and Memoirs of a Survivor, has died Photo: AP
Doris Lessing, the British Nobel Prize winner and author of the "pioneering" The Golden Notebook, has died aged 94.
A spokesman this afternoon confirmed reports on Twitter that the author died peacefully at her London home in the early hours of this morning.
Born in Persia (modern day Iran) in 1919, Ms Lessing grew up in Southern Rhodesia before emigrating to London after the Second World War with the manuscript of her first novel, The Grass Is Singing, in her suitcase
It was published in 1950 and across the course of her life she produced 54 further works, including poetry, two operas, short stories, plays and non-fiction.
In 2007, she became the oldest recipient of the Nobel Prize for Literature, aged 88, and only the 11th woman to win the award.
Jonathan Clowes, her long time friend and agent, said today that he was greatly saddened by the news.
He said: "She was a wonderful writer with a fascinating and original mind; it was a privilege to work for her and we shall miss her immensely."
On winning the Nobel Prize, the Swedish Academy described Ms Lessing as an "epicist of the femal experience, who with scepticism, fire and visionary power has subjected a divided civilisation to scrutiny".
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Jonathan Clowes, her long time friend and agent, said today that he was greatly saddened by the news.
He said: "She was a wonderful writer with a fascinating and original mind; it was a privilege to work for her and we shall miss her immensely."
On winning the Nobel Prize, the Swedish Academy described Ms Lessing as an "epicist of the femal experience, who with scepticism, fire and visionary power has subjected a divided civilisation to scrutiny".
More
