Lessing gives her word on write stuff for success

WRITING is hard work, Doris Lessing told the 500 people who gathered to hear her read on Saturday. “And keeping writing is even harder.”

Few authors could be more qualified to comment on the joys and trials of writing than Lessing, author of more than 25 novels, including the Grass is Singing and The Golden Notebook, and an avalanche of non-fiction, poetry, opera and drama.

The 85-year-old was in Cork on Saturday for the World Writing Series, the literary backbone of the Cork 2005 celebrations, which has also featured Dervla Murphy, Nobel Laureate Seamus Heaney, Paula Meehan and Paul Muldoon.