London Observed

Across eighteen short stories, Lessing dissects London and its inhabitants with the power for truth and compassion to be expected of the Nobel Prize for Literature 2007.

'During that first year in England, I had a vision of London I cannot recall now…it was a nightmare city that I lived in for a year. Then, one evening, walking across the park, the light welded buildings, trees and scarlet buses into something familiar and beautiful, and I knew myself to be at home.'

Doris Lessing wrote those words in 1957, and since then she has continued to observe both London and its inhabitants with the shrewd, sensitive eye of an artist. Representing over three decades of fine writing, 'London Observed: Stories and Sketches' contains eighteen perfect pen-portraits of Londoners and their city.

"Lessing maintains the nice tension between compassion and rather brutal detachment that is a characteristic of her best work."
INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY

"Lessing's vision of London is a brilliant diorama of comedy, tragedy and squalor, lifted by moments of true delight."
COSMOPOLITAN

"This collection is full of fine things."
THE TIMES

"These are intriguing, potent, witty and sometimes macabre tales."
TIME OUT

"She exercises the faculty of observation with an acuity and percipience shared by few other living writers."
HARPERS & QUEEN

"Explicit tenderness is a hallmark of many of these tales. Here's art holding up a mirror to life, to London, and declaring a vision untarnished, clear and steady."
NEW STATESMAN & SOCIETY

Across eighteen short stories, Lessing dissects London and its inhabitants with the power for truth and compassion to be expected of the Nobel Prize for Literature 2007.

'During that first year in England, I had a vision of London I cannot recall now … it was a nightmare city that I lived in for a year. Then, one evening, walking across the park, the light welded buildings, trees and scarlet buses into something familiar and beautiful, and I knew myself to be at home.'

Lessing’s vision of London – a place of nightmares and wonder – underpins this brilliantly multifaceted collection of stories about the city, seen from a cafe table, a hospital bed, the back seat of a taxi, a hospital casualty department; seen, as always, unflinchingly, and compellingly depicted.