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Goldsboro Books

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This Was the Old Chief's Country

This Was the Old Chief's Country

by Doris Lessing

Publisher Michael Joseph

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  • UK First Edition
  • First Printing
  • Hardcover

£250.00
£250.00
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About the book

The first volume of Doris Lessings Collected African Stories, and a classic work from the winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature.

It can be said of all white-dominated Africa that it was and still is the Old Chiefs Country. So all the stories I write of a certain kind I think of as belonging under that heading; tales about white people, sometimes about black people, living in a landscape that not so very long ago was settled by black tribes, living in complex societies that the white people are only just beginning to study, let alone understand. Doris Lessing, from the Preface

In this superb volume of African stories, Lessing paints a magnificent portrait of the country in which she grew up. The cruelties of the white man towards the native, the amorphous black mass, like tadpoles, faceless, who existed merely to serve, the English settlers, ill at ease, the gamblers and moneymakers searching for diamonds and gold, and the presence, latent always in the blood, of Africa itself, its majestic beauty and timeless landscape: Lessing draws them all together into a powerful, memorable vision.

About the Author

Doris Lessing

Doris Lessing was a British-Zimbabwean (Rhodesian) novelist. She was born to British parents in Iran, where she lived until 1925. Her family then moved to Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), where she remained until moving in 1949 to London, England. Her novels include The Grass Is Singing, the sequence of five novels collectively called Children of Violence, The Golden Notebook, The Good Terrorist and five novels collectively known as Canopus in Argos: Archives.


Lessing was awarded the 2007 Nobel Prize in Literature. In awarding the prize, the Swedish Academy described her as "that epicist of the female experience, who with scepticism, fire and visionary power has subjected a divided civilisation to scrutiny". Lessing was the oldest person ever to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature.

In 2001, Lessing was awarded the David Cohen Prize for a lifetime's achievement in British literature. In 2008, The Times ranked her fifth on a list of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945".



  • Professionally Packed

    All of our books that have a dust wrapper are covered in clear protective, removable film and are packed professionally in bubble wrap and a box for shipping so that they reach you in perfect condition.

  • Book Condition & Notes

    A very good first edition in the publisher's brown cloth. In a very good dust jacket with a small tear on the bottom of the front cover.

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