Her family moved to the British colony of Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) in 1925, to live a rough life farming. Unfortunately, the farm failed to yield wealth, thwarting her mother's desire to live the life of a Victorian in "savage lands". She left school at the age of 15 and was self-educated from that point onwards.

Despite a difficult and unhappy childhood, Lessing's writings about life in British Africa are filled with a compassion for both the sterile lives of the British colonists and the plight of the indigenous inhabitants.

She was married twice (and twice divorced) and had three children. Her first novel, "The Grass Is Singing", was published in 1950, after she had moved to London in 1949, where she has been living ever since.

She is the author of dozens of books, including fiction, science fiction and non-fiction. Her most well-known book is likely "The Golden Notebook" which is still widely read and studied in universities.

She has received many prizes and awards including the 2001 Prince of Asturias Prize in Literature for her works in defense of freedom and Third World causes. She also received the David Cohen British Literature Prize. She declined a knighthood, but accepted a Companion of Honour.

In 2007 she was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Her final novel, "Alfred and Emily" was published in May 2008.