Doris Lessing was born Doris May Tayler, in Persia (later renamed as Iran) to English parents on October 22, 1919. Her family then moved to Southern Rhodesia (later renamed as Zimbabwe) in Southern Africa, in 1924. There, Lessing left school at the age of thirteen, began working at fifteen, and began a longtime involvement with Marxist politics. She was attracted to Marxism's focus on workers' rights. Further, in its Southern African form, Marxist politics was focused on the rights of blacks. The indigenous black populations in the region had been subjugated since the period of European colonialism. Lessing lived in Africa until she moved to London, England, in 1949.

Lessing arrived in London with a manuscript of a first novel, The Grass is Singing, which takes place in Zimbabwe and which made Lessing's name as a writer. She followed this first publication with three novels from what is, in total...