Archive of Doris Lessing’s private letters opens after 23 years

Archive of Doris Lessing's private letters opens after 23 years. An archive of letters written by Nobel Laureate Doris Lessing to an "erstwhile lover" has been opened by the University of Sussex - 23 years after it was first acquired. Leonard Smith, whom Lessing addresses as "Smithie", was a 19-year-old cadet pilot in the Royal Airforce when he first met the aspiring novelist in 1944 in Southern Rhodesia. The 150 letters he received from her span several decades, revealing her views on sex, politics, and literature that were to inform some of her most celebrated works. They also give extraordinary details of her complex personal relationships. The sexualities of many in Lessing's radical group were fluid. In his own introduction to the archive, Smith admits he was captivated by the lively young writer (she was known as "Tigger" to close associates) and "..like all the other RAF men, I immediately fell in love with her".