WRITER PROFILE

Theo Dorgan conducts a rare interview with Doris Lessing. A major figure in 20th Century literature, Lessing's extraordinarily prolific career spans more than 45 years.

In this interview, which took place in her house in London, she talks at length about her preoccupations as an author and the absolute significance of the writer to society as a chronicler of events. She is by turns learned and witty, playful and complex as an interviewee and her importance as a writer and observer of the world is once again confirmed by this interview in which her experience and profound philosophical engagement with the world shine through like a beacon.

She was born Doris May Taylor to British parents living in Persia (now Iran). In 1925, her family moved to a British colony in Southern Rhodesia. Her formal education ended at 13, but Lessing grew into an intellectual who put writing ahead of everything.

She was married twice and had three children, but left her family because she feared the family life would stifle her. In 1949, Lessing moved to London with her youngest son to concentrate on writing. That year, she published her first novel, "The Grass is Singing," a critical look at racial politics in Rhodesia.

She once said that troubled childhoods seem to produce fiction writers, reading and writing serving as a means of escape. Theo draws her on what she means by this and she says "well, children who are stressed become very observant, they watch everything around them and that's what writers do". Lessing's own career provides a twist on that theme. Much of her fictional works are deeply autobiographical, drawing upon memories and the social conditions of her difficult childhood in southern Rhodesia and she explores this with Theo in detail.

Her early novels from the 1950s and early 1960s were outspoken in their portrayal of sterile colonial life in Africa, of the racial injustices, of the struggle between individual conscience and societal mandate. " I was simply writing about what I was brought up in and of course there were howls of protest".

Those were views that got her banned in both Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and South Africa in 1956. Those same writings now make her a celebrated figure in both places.

She has lived her life like she has written - with a sense of brutal honesty and independence, paying little mind to popular norms or political correctness. Many of the female characters in her novels reflect this spirit. She remembers that "The Golden Notebook is hailed as one of the first feminist books ever written and I got some unfavourable reactions, 'balls cutter' was one I remember, but I was writing a book set in a particular time in the 20th Century during the collapse of communism".

She has always been seen as a formidable and tough-minded individual and this is still very much in evidence. Asked by Theo what is her job as a writer she gives a wonderful answer. "I belong to the tribe of storytellers, we are international, very free, not sex bound or time bound. I am a member of the honourable tribe of storytellers."

Lessing's works, have been filled with reflections on every political and cultural movement of her time, from Communism to the Cold War to the "sexual revolution" of the 1960s.

More than just an observer, Lessing often has found herself on the forefront. In a 1997 article in Salon magazine, one interviewer remarked that Lessing was the exception to the rule that "even extraordinary novelists tend to lead rather ordinary lives."


Biographical Details

Doris Lessing was born Doris May Taylor to British parents living in Persia (now Iran).

In 1925, her family moved to a British colony in Southern Rhodesia. Her formal education ended at 13, but Lessing grew into an intellectual who put writing ahead of everything. She was married twice and had three children, but left her family because she feared the family life would stifle her.

In 1949, Lessing moved to London with her youngest son to concentrate on writing. That year, she published her first novel, "The Grass is Singing," a critical look at racial politics in Rhodesia. Later works, including her own autobiographies, have been filled with reflections on every political and cultural movement of her time, from Communism to the Cold War to the "sexual revolution" of the 1960s.

More than just an observer, Lessing often has found herself on the forefront. In a 1997 article in Salon magazine, one interviewer remarked that Lessing was the exception to the rule that "even extraordinary novelists tend to lead rather ordinary lives."


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Running Time: 30mins
Year Made: 2000
Price: €20 - PAL (European), €30 - NTSC (US) plus P&P