Join Amazon Prime and get unlimited Free One-Day Delivery. Already a member? Sign in.

 

or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
 
   
More Buying Choices
43 used & new from £0.01
Have one to sell? Sell yours here
 
   
Under My Skin: Volume One of My Autobiography, to 1949
 
See larger image 
Share your own customer images
Publisher: learn how customers can search inside this book.

Under My Skin: Volume One of My Autobiography, to 1949 (Paperback)

by Doris May Lessing (Author)
4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
RRP: £9.99
Price: £6.99 & this item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
You Save: £3.00 (30%)
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
In stock.
Dispatched from and sold by Amazon.co.uk. Gift-wrap available.

Only 4 left in stock--order soon (more on the way).

Want guaranteed delivery by Wednesday, July 15? Choose Express delivery at checkout. See Details
23 new from £3.75 20 used from £0.01
Other Editions: RRP: Our Price: Other Offers:
Hardcover 3 used & new from £35.03
Paperback 20 used & new from £2.76
Unknown Binding Order it used

Frequently Bought Together

Under My Skin: Volume One of My Autobiography, to 1949 + Walking in the Shade: Volume Two of My Autobiography, 1949-62 + The Golden Notebook (Harper Perennial Modern Classics)
Price For All Three: £21.83

Show availability and shipping details

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

Walking in the Shade: Volume Two of My Autobiography, 1949-62

Walking in the Shade: Volume Two of My Autobiography, 1949-62

by Doris May Lessing
4.3 out of 5 stars (3)  £9.99
The Golden Notebook (Harper Perennial Modern Classics)

The Golden Notebook (Harper Perennial Modern Classics)

by Doris May Lessing
3.6 out of 5 stars (11)  £4.85
The Grass Is Singing

The Grass Is Singing

by Doris May Lessing
4.1 out of 5 stars (14)  £5.99
The Fifth Child (Paladin Books)

The Fifth Child (Paladin Books)

by Doris May Lessing
4.1 out of 5 stars (19)  £5.99
Martha Quest (Children of Violence)

Martha Quest (Children of Violence)

by Doris May Lessing
4.5 out of 5 stars (2)  £6.99
› Explore similar items

Product details

  • Paperback: 432 pages
  • Publisher: Flamingo; New Ed edition (9 Oct 1995)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0006548253
  • ISBN-13: 978-0006548256
  • Product Dimensions: 19.2 x 13 x 3 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 45,999 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    •  Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?

Customers Viewing This Page May Be Interested in These Sponsored Links

  (What is this?)
1949 - The Ideal Gift
   www.CurioQuest.com    20 Original Hits from 1949 on CD An hour of nostalgic footage on DVD 
Born in 1949?
   GoneDigging.co.uk/OriginalNewspaper    Buy The Original & Complete Newspaper From 1949. 
  
 

Product Description

Synopsis
This is the first volume of Doris Lessing's autobigraphy, beginning with her childhood in Africa, taking us through her marriages, the birth of her children, involvement in communist politics, and ending on her arrival in London in 1949 with the typescript of her first novel, "The Grass is Singing", in her suitcase. It tells the story of a young woman, uncompromising in every respect, who battles at every turn against her upbringing and environment in Southern Rhodesia, who fights for her individuality and self-determination at any cost.

Suggested Tags from Similar Products

 (What's this?)
Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
Check a corresponding box or enter your own tags in the field below
women writers
women
memoirs - correspondence - interviews
literature nobel prize winners
doris lessing
africa
20th century european fiction

Your tags: Add your first tag
 
See most popular tags

What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

Under My Skin: Volume One of My Autobiography, to 1949
74% buy the item featured on this page:
Under My Skin: Volume One of My Autobiography, to 1949 4.8 out of 5 stars (4)
£6.99
The Golden Notebook (Harper Perennial Modern Classics)
13% buy
The Golden Notebook (Harper Perennial Modern Classics) 3.6 out of 5 stars (11)
£4.85
The Grass Is Singing
7% buy
The Grass Is Singing 4.1 out of 5 stars (14)
£5.99
Walking in the Shade: Volume Two of My Autobiography, 1949-62
4% buy
Walking in the Shade: Volume Two of My Autobiography, 1949-62 4.3 out of 5 stars (3)
£9.99
Explore similar items
 

Customer Reviews

4 Reviews
5 star:
 (3)
4 star:
 (1)
3 star:    (0)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.8 out of 5 stars (4 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars masterful autobiography, 14 Feb 2003
By George Reid - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
Under My Skin

Doris Lessing's autobiography traces her political and emotional development from her earliest childhood memories to her growing, overwhelming, disenchantment with provincial (as she saw it) small town life. "Small town" life for her was pre-WWII Salisbury in the (then) British colony of Southern Rhodesia. Salisbury was a complacent capital city of 10,000 white settlers in a country the size of Spain.
Lessing is quick to debunk the myth of the prosperous, close knit, white farming community - poverty was a real fact of life both for blacks and whites. Her most vivid childhood memories are of escaping from the family home and off into the limitless veld. The emptiness of the veld parallels her youthful emptiness and her growing convictions that the communist party represents a real hope for the world.
The book, a masterpiece of autobiographical writing, is brutally honest in parts and wilfully obscure in others. Some of her emotional mistakes are hardly glanced at (leaving her first two children, for example) but others (the joys of being part of a fast, hard drinking sect, embracing radical politics) are wonderfully engaging. Reading her thoughts you could be forgiven for thinking that the "party" was the only opposition to conservative white rule in Salisbury. This is what makes her book so appealing, her supreme skill as a novelist allowing us to enter the heady world of rushed meetings, leftist newspaper deliveries, drinks on the sports club verandah and back in time to find the cook still waiting to prepare supper. Naturally it couldn't last and Lessing is far too intelligent to think that that is all there is to life. The book ends in 1949 as she arrives in London, apprehensive and hopeful in the capital city of her parents.
This is more than a 'who-did-what' from a long time ago, times and dates are (probably deliberately) rarely mentioned. It is the personalities and the ideas - most of all the ideas - sliding from youthful enthusiasm to mature realism which fuse the book with life and vitality. 'Under My Skin', published in 1992, is that rare thing, a candid autobiography written by a consummate novelist with skills to spare. Doris Lessing is a national treasure.

Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Masterful Autobiography, 6 Feb 2003
By George Reid - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
... Doris Lessing's autobiography traces her political and emotional development from her earliest childhood memories to her growing, overwhelming, disenchantment with provincial (as she saw it) small town life. "Small town" life for her was pre-WWII Salisbury in the (then) British colony of Southern Rhodesia. Salisbury was a complacent capital city of 10,000 white settlers in a country the size of Spain.
Lessing is quick to debunk the myth of the prosperous, close knit, white farming community - poverty was a real fact of life both for blacks and whites. Her most vivid childhood memories are of escaping from the family home and off into the limitless veld. The emptiness of the veld parallels her youthful emptiness and her growing convictions that the communist party represents a real hope for the world.
The book, a masterpiece of autobiographical writing, is brutally honest in parts and wilfully obscure in others. Some of her emotional mistakes are hardly glanced at (leaving her first two children, for example) but others (the joys of being part of a fast, hard drinking sect, embracing radical politics) are wonderfully engaging. Reading her thoughts you could be forgiven for thinking that the "party" was the only opposition to conservative white rule in Salisbury. This is what makes her book so appealing, her supreme skill as a novelist allowing us to enter the heady world of rushed meetings, leftist newspaper deliveries, drinks on the sports club verandah and back in time to find the cook still waiting to prepare supper. Naturally it couldn't last and Lessing is far too intelligent to think that that is all there is to life. The book ends in 1949 as she arrives in London, apprehensive and hopeful in the capital city of her parents.
This is more than a 'who-did-what' from a long time ago, times and dates are (probably deliberately) rarely mentioned. It is the personalities and the ideas - most of all the ideas - sliding from youthful enthusiasm to mature realism which fuse the book with life and vitality. 'Under My Skin', published in 1992, is that rare thing, a candid autobiography written by a consummate novelist with skills to spare. Doris Lessing is a national treasure.
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
5 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars First volume of autobiography, 22 Jun 2002
The first volume of Doris Lessing's autobiography. Born in 1919, she was brought up in Iran and Southern Rhodesia. Lessing is a novelist of some stature who has serious science fiction credentials. She refuses to be labelled, and has spoken of her anger at the way various causes have tried to appropriate her work.

This autobiography takes us through her childhood, marriage, motherhood, and political development. She emerges as a rugged individual, determined to confirm her own autonomy. Themes central to her writing emerge - her enduring attachment to Africa and her political development and espousal of causes.

Lessing writes with extraordinary passion and conviction, painting her life from an atmospheric palette of memories and insights.

Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)


Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
 
 
 
Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Unvarnished
This is a candid autobiography with as main themes love, sex (good sex, as the author calls it, is a right for everybody) and politics (communism) in South-Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe)... Read more
Published 21 months ago by Luc REYNAERT

Only search this product's reviews


Customer Discussions

 Beta (What's this?)
This product's forum (0 discussions)
  Discussion Replies Latest Post
  No discussions yet

Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
  [Cancel]


Active discussions in related forums
   
Related forums

Listmania!

Create a Listmania! list

Look for similar items by category

Feedback

Walking in the Shade : 1949-1962

Walking in the...

"You can't help but admire her independence of thought and feeling and... Read more

›Find similar items

 

More From Doris Lessing

The Golden Notebook

The Golden Notebook by Doris May Lessing

'At the beginning of the Sixties, this vast, frank, complicated novel... Read more
£8.99 £4.85

 

Up to 50% off Dental Care

Braun Oral-B Professional Care 6000 Rechargeable Toothbrush - Pack of 2
Put a sparkle in your smile with up to 50% off selected Oral-B and Philips rechargeable toothbrushes.

›Up to 50% off power toothbrushes

  

Treat Someone

Amazon.co.uk Gift Certificates--available in any amount from £5 to £500 With an Amazon.co.uk Gift Certificate, you can get them what they want (even if you don't know what that is).

›Learn more about Gift Certificates

  
Ad

Where's My Stuff?

Delivery and Returns

Need Help?

Your Recent History

  (What's this?)
You have no recently viewed items or searches.

After viewing product detail pages or search results, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in.

Look to the right column to find helpful suggestions for your shopping session.
Continue Shopping: Top Sellers
The Girl Who Played with Fire
The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson
4.5 out of 5 stars (75)£3.86
 Breaking Dawn (Twilight Saga)
Breaking Dawn (Twilight Saga) by Stephenie Meyer
4.1 out of 5 stars (464)£6.49
 The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
4.1 out of 5 stars (165)£3.99
 The Host
The Host by Stephenie Meyer
4.2 out of 5 stars (84)£3.86

amazon.co.uk Amazon Home
International Sites:  United States  |  Germany  |  France  |  Japan  |  Canada  |  China
Business Programs: Sell on Amazon  |  Fulfilment by Amazon  |  Join Associates  |  Join Advantage
Customer Service  |  Help  |  View Basket  |  Your Account
About Amazon.co.uk  |  Careers at Amazon
Conditions of Use & Sale |  Privacy Notice  © 1996-2009, Amazon.com, Inc. and its affiliates