Doris Lessing [SKINNYFest 4]

The 86-year old Doris Lessing entered a crammed theatre this Monday to talk about her new book, 'The Story of General Dann and Mara's Daughter, Griot and the Snow Dog', a futuristic tale and a sequel to 1999's 'Mara and Dann'. Ms Lessing is a festival regular, and having missed last year with illness her appearance was all the more enjoyable for the well-informed audience that showed up. Lessing's first novel was published in 1950, and this meant that, though the talk about her current book was interesting, it was the questions from audience members about her rich back catalogue that were really engrossing. There was one awkward moment when she was asked about how she sees the future of women refugees. She admitted that she became tetchy when asked such questions, because she doesn't feel that men suffer less than women, and asked the questioner why she felt women suffered more. No satisfactory answer was forthcoming. Otherwise this was an informative, even fascinating, appearance by a great writer, which left me eager to read more of Doris Lessing's fiction – the best possible effect this kind of talk could have had.