Doris May Lessing CH (born 22 October 1919) is a British novelist, poet, playwright, librettist, biographer and short storey 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).