RIP Doris Lessing; Twitter reacts to her death

November 17, 2013

Doris Lessing, the Nobel prize-winning author of The Golden Notebook and The Grass is Singing has died at the age of 94. Lessing received the Nobel Prize in Literature at the age of 88 becoming the oldest person to ever receive the honour. She was the eleventh woman to receive the award. Lessing had written over 50 novels ranging from political to science fiction. The citation from the Swedish Academy called her “that epicist of the female experience, who with scepticism, fire and visionary power has subjected a divided civilisation to scrutiny”. In 2001, Lessing was awarded the David Cohen Prize for a lifetime’s achievement in British Literature. Twitter was quick to react to the news of her death. Though Lessing was born in Iran and raised in the African bush in Zimbabwe, she was a London resident and luminary for more than half a century.