Doris Lessing
Doris Lessing was born to British parents and raised in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), where her family hoped to profit from farming.
Largely self-educated, she worked various jobs before publishing her debut novel in 1949.
She married twice and was deeply involved with the Communist movement before becoming disillusioned.
Moving to London in 1949, she built a celebrated literary career championing freedom and Third World causes.
She received numerous honours, including the Prince of Asturias Prize in 2001 and the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2007, recognised for work that once led to her political exile from South Africa.
