How had all this started? What sort of woman had Mary Turner been
before she came to the farm and had been driven slowly crazy by heat,
loneliness and poverty? He tried to think clearly, to get a picture of what
had really happened.
In southern Africa in the 1940s, the whites are in control. They
control through fear - and they must stay in control. So when a
white woman is murdered by her black servant all the whites agree:
the law must take its course. The case must be simple and quick -
without too many questions.
But there are questions, and people are asking them. How did
Mary Turner lose control? Why did the servant murder her? How
could a servant even think of it?
The answers are not simple. They are as difficult and painful as
Mary Turner's life itself - a life in a place where she was never
meant to be . . .
Doris Lessing was born in Kermanshah, Iran in 1919, the daughter
of British parents. The family moved to Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe)
when she was five and she was brought up on a farm there. After
marrying - and divorcing - twice, she became involved with a
political group who were demanding greater freedom for black
people. The Rhodesian government sent her out of the country in
1949 and she moved to London. She had with her the pages of her
first novel, The Grass is Singing, which was very successful and came
out in the United States, Britain and ten other European countries at
the same time. From that time on, she supported herself and her son
by writing.
Doris Lessing has written many different kinds of stories and
novels. Many reflect her experiences in Africa, and later books
explore life in Britain. She has also written science fiction stories.
She has won many prizes for her books.