But there is no doubt that to attempt a novel of ideas is to give oneself a handicap: the parochialism of our culture is intense. For instance, decade after decade bright young men and women emerge from their universities able to say proudly: 'Of course I know nothing about German literature.' It is the mode. The Victorians knew everything about German literature, but were able with a clear conscience not to know much about the French.

When asked why Doris Lessing explained:


Doris Lessing Society
The Doris Lessing Society is dedicated to supporting the scholarly study of Lessing’s work. Alfred Tayler and his wife moved to Kermanshah Iran in order to take up a job as a clerk for the Imperial Bank of Persia and it was there that Doris was born in 1919.

Doris May Lessing CH (née Tayler; born 22 October 1919) is a British novelist poet playwright librettist biographer and short story writer. Her novels include The Grass Is Singing (1950) the sequence of five novels collectively called Children of Violence (1952–69) The Golden Notebook (1962) The Good Terrorist (1985) and five novels collectively known as Canopus in Argos: Archives (1979–1983).