Doris Lessing’s literary executors are on the hunt for new biographer

Acclaimed author of The Golden Notebook gave future biographer full access to her vast literary estate, including never-seen sealed diaries

The literary executors of Doris Lessing’s will are looking to appoint a new biographer of the Nobel laureate, who will have access to the diaries Lessing had stipulated would remain closed to her family.

The acclaimed author, who died in 2013 aged 94, left behind her more than 50 books, including the feminist classic The Golden Notebook. Lessing wrote in her will, dated to 2009, that she wished Michael Holroyd, the award-winning biographer of George Bernard Shaw, to undertake the task of writing her own life. But Lessing added that if Holroyd was unable or unwilling to do so, then her literary executors should appoint another authorised biographer who should, she stated, “be given full access to all my literary estate (including my diaries) for the purpose only of writing my biography”.

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