However, as she reached her mid-thirties she realised that her “friends” were all mocking her behind her back for her dress sense and lack of romantic entanglements, and so she cast about for a husband, any husband. After a miserable rural childhood, Mary spent her young adult years 'in town', making good money in an office and filling her free time with parties, sports, social engagements, and so on. The central characters of this book are Mary Turner and her husband, Dick. She has a talent for it, of course, and in the case of The Grass is Singing the end result is a sharp criticism of the racist, nasty society of Southern Rhodesia. You get the sense that Lessing might not have been the kind of person you'd want to befriend, with an eagerness to identify people's every personal failing and crucify them at length for it.

Both are unrelentingly bleak, with miserable and pathetic characters who nonetheless feel extremely believable in their hopelessness. I'd previously read one other book by Doris Lessing, The Good Terrorist, and despite being written 35 years apart they share the same writing style. Two stars for being painful to read, not for being poor-quality (which it isn't).

Doris lessing the grass is singing