Alfred and Emily

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In her first book following the Nobel Prize, Doris Lessing reflects on her childhood in Southern Africa and the lives of her parents, shaped by their experiences in the Great War. Lessing reveals how her father's rage and trauma from the trenches have lingered in her own consciousness. Her father, once aspiring to be a simple English farmer, was severely injured, losing a leg to shrapnel, while her mother, Emily, nursed the wounded after losing her great love, a doctor who drowned during the war. The narrative begins with an imaginative exploration of what their lives might have been like without the war, envisioning a chance meeting at a village cricket match in Colchester. This is contrasted with a stark examination of their actual lives, marked by the war's impact, as they move to Rhodesia, where they struggle as a damaged couple over Doris's childhood. Throughout the book, Lessing grapples with the emotional legacy left by her parents, expressing a desire to break free from it. Ultimately, through this poignant exploration, she seeks to liberate herself from the burdens of that "monstrous legacy."