In Pursuit of the English

Australia.’

‘But he hasn’t sent you his address.’

‘Ah, my Lord, nobody cares for me no more and Doris is not our friend because she’s going.’

‘She has to go some time, it stands to reason. The way I look at it, some people have an itch in their feet, that moves them on from place to place.’

‘I don’t blame you, dear,’ said Flo to me. ‘But we’ve been good to you, haven’t we, darling?’

‘You make me sick,’ said Rose. ‘Do you want her to say sweet things, and all this time Dan’s as good as killing her because she has the sense to say no to your fancy rent?’

‘But I don’t understand these things, you know that, dear.’

‘Yes?’ said Rose.

‘But we have been good to your little boy, haven’t we, darling?’

‘Very,’ I said. ‘I’ll never forget it.’

‘That’s right. We should all be kind to each other. If we was all kind to each other all over the world it would be different, wouldn’t it now?’

‘That’s right,’ I said.

‘Yes?’ said Rose. ‘A likely story.’

Winner of the Nobel Prize

NONFICTION

AFRICAN LAUGHTER: Four Visits to Zimbabwe

ISBN 978-0-06-092433-1 (paperback)

GOING HOME

ISBN 978-0-06-09730-9 (paperback)

IN PURSUIT OF THE ENGLISH: A Documentary

ISBN 978-0-06-097629-3 (paperback)

PRISONS WE CHOOSE TO LIVE INSIDE

ISBN 978-0-06-039077-8 (paperback)

TIME BITES: Views and Reviews

ISBN 978-0-06-083141-7 (paperback)

UNDER MY SKIN: Volume One of My Autobiography, to 1949

ISBN 978-0-06-092664-9 (paperback)

WALKING IN THE SHADE: Volume Two of My Autobiography, 1949-1962

ISBN 978-0-06-092956-5 (paperback)

FICTION

BEN, IN THE WORLD: The Sequel to The Fifth Child

ISBN 978-0-06-093465-1 (paperback)

THE CLEFT: A Novel

ISBN 978-0-06-083486-9 (hardcover)

THE GOLDEN NOTEBOOK

ISBN 978-0-06-093140-7 (paperback)

THE GRANDMOTHERS: Four Short Novels

ISBN 978-0-06-053011-2 (paperback)

THE GRASS IS SINGING: A Novel

ISBN 978-0-06-095346-1 (paperback)

LOVE AGAIN: A Novel

ISBN 978-0-06-092796-7 (paperback)

MARA AND DANN: An Adventure

ISBN 978-0-06-093056-1 (paperback)

THE REAL THING: Stories and Sketches

ISBN 978-0-06-092417-1 (paperback)

THE STORY OF GENERAL DANN AND MARA’S DAUGHTER, GRIOT AND THE SNOW DOG: A Novel

ISBN 978-0-06-053013-6 (paperback)

THE SWEETEST DREAM: A Novel

ISBN 978-0-06-093755-3 (paperback)

THE CHILDREN OF VIOLENCE SERIES

MARTHA QUEST

ISBN 978-0-06-095969-2 (paperback)

A PROPER MARRIAGE

ISBN 978-0-06-097663-7 (paperback)

A RIPPLE FROM THE STORM

ISBN 978-0-06-097664-4 (paperback)

LANDLOCKED

ISBN 978-0-06-097665-1 (paperback)

THE FOUR-GATED CITY

ISBN 978-0-06-097667-5 (paperback)

HARPER PERENNIAL

About the Author

DORIS LESSING was born of British parents in Persia in 1919 and moved with her family to Southern Rhodesia when she was five years old. She went to England in 1949 and has lived there ever since. She is the author of more than thirty books—novels, stories, reportage, poems and plays. Doris Lessing lives in London.

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Praise

“One of the most authentic books ever written about the English…. Funny, touching and so real that the smell and taste of London seem to rise from its pages.”

—R.A. Fraser, San Francisco Chronicle

“Eloquent…. Wry and ribald…. [Lessing’s] impressive gifts for characterization and dialogue, her skill as a raconteur and her tartly humorous style combine to make In Pursuit of the English readable and amusing.”

—Orville Prescott, New York Times

“No other writer, from any continent, has this raceless, classless fellowship com bined with total physical