The Children of Violence is a sequence of five semi-autobiographical novels by British Nobel Prize in Literature-winner Doris Lessing: Martha Quest (1952), A Proper Marriage (1954), A Ripple from the Storm (1958), Landlocked (1965), and The Four-Gated City (1969). [1] The novels "are strongly influenced by Lessing's rejection of a domestic family role and her involvement with communism." [2] Lessing identified the series as a bildungsroman. [3]
The series follows the life of protagonist Martha Quest from adolescence until her death, which takes place in the future, in the year 1997. The first four novels are set during the 1930s and 1940s, in the fictional country of Zambesia, based on the former British colony of Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), where Lessing lived from 1925 until 1949. [4] The fifth work, The Four-Gated City, is set in London, primarily in the 1950s and 1960s. The novel's appendix extends into a dystopian future in which Britain has become uninhabitable due to an unspecified catastrophe, speculated to be either a nuclear detonation or mass contamination from chemical weapons following a fire at Porton Down. [3]
Doris May Lessing was a British novelist. She was born to British parents in Iran, where she lived until 1925. Her family then moved to Southern Rhodesia, where she remained until moving in 1949 to London, England. Her novels include The Grass Is Singing (1950), the sequence of five novels collectively called Children of Violence (1952–1969), The Golden Notebook (1962), The Good Terrorist (1985), and five novels collectively known as Canopus in Argos: Archives (1979–1983).
Dame Margaret Drabble, Lady Holroyd, is an English biographer, novelist and short story writer.
The year 1954 in television involved some significant events. Below is a list of television-related events in 1954.
Fernando Álvaro Lamas y de Santos was an Argentine-American actor and director, and the father of actor Lorenzo Lamas.
Henry Treece was a British poet and writer who also worked as a teacher and editor. He wrote a range of works but is mostly remembered as a writer of children's historical novels.
Edwin Charles Tubb was a British writer of science fiction, fantasy and western novels. The author of over 140 novels and 230 short stories and novellas, Tubb is best known for The Dumarest Saga, an epic science-fiction saga set in the far future. Michael Moorcock wrote, "His reputation for fast-moving and colourful SF writing is unmatched by anyone in Britain."
Cecil Parker was an English actor with a distinctively husky voice, who usually played supporting roles, often characters with a supercilious demeanour, in his 91 films made between 1928 and 1969.
The Marriages Between Zones Three, Four and Five is a 1980 science fiction novel by Doris Lessing. It is the second book in her five-book Canopus in Argos series, the first being Shikasta (1979). It was first published in the United States in March 1980 by Alfred A. Knopf, and in the United Kingdom in May 1980 by Jonathan Cape.
Jane Lane was the pen name of Elaine Kidner Dakers, an English novelist and biographer. Her best-known books are historical novels set in the 17th and 18th century.
Commander Frank Gilbert Hackforth-Jones R.N. (1900–1982) was a British writer of the mid 20th century. His writings reflected his own love and experience of the sea and sailing. He was the author of several novels and books for children and also wrote for BBC radio, the stage and cinema.
Ernest Raymond was a British novelist, best known for his first novel, Tell England (1922), set in World War I. His next biggest success was We, the Accused (1935), generally thought to be a reworking of the Crippen case. Raymond was a highly prolific writer, with an output of forty-six novels, two plays and ten non-fiction works.
The Four-Gated City, published in 1969, is the concluding novel in British Nobel Prize-winning author Doris Lessing's five-volume, semi-autobiographical series The Children of Violence, which she began, in 1952, with Martha Quest. In The Four-Gated City Lessing moves the setting from Zambesia, a fictionalized version of Southern Rhodesia, to London. Martha "is integrally part of the social history of the time - the Cold War, the Aldermaston Marches, Swinging London, the deepening of poverty and social anarchy." The novel extends into science fiction, depicting a dystopian future following the destruction of Britain.
Ursula Bloom was a British novelist, biographer and journalist.
Gottfried Anton Nicolai Lessing was a German lawyer, political activist, and diplomat.
Russell Reading Braddon was an Australian writer of novels, biographies and TV scripts. His chronicle of his four years as a prisoner of war, The Naked Island, sold more than a million copies.
Ida Julia Pollock was a British writer of several short-stories and over 125 romance novels that were published under her married name, Ida Pollock, and under a number of different pseudonyms: Joan M. Allen; Susan Barrie, Pamela Kent, Averil Ives, Anita Charles, Barbara Rowan, Jane Beaufort, Rose Burghley, Mary Whistler and Marguerite Bell. She sold millions of copies over her 90-year career. She has been referred to as the "world's oldest novelist" who was still active at 105 and continued writing until her death. On the occasion of her 105th birthday, Pollock was appointed honorary vice-president of the Romantic Novelists' Association, having been one of its founding members.
Doris Leslie, was a British novelist and historical biographer. Her novel Peridot Flight (1956) was serialised in 10 episodes by BBC TV in October–December 1960.
Martha Quest (1952) is the second novel of British Nobel Prize in Literature-winner Doris Lessing, and the first of the five-volume semi-autobiographical Children of Violence series, which traces Martha Quest’s life to middle age. The other volumes in The Children of Violence are A Proper Marriage (1954), A Ripple from the Storm (1958), Landlocked (1965), and The Four-Gated City (1969).
A Proper Marriage (1954) is the second novel in British Nobel Prize in Literature-winner Doris Lessing five volume, semi-autobiographical, series, Children of Violence. The first volume is Martha Quest (1952), and the others are, A Ripple from the Storm (1958), Landlocked (1965), and The Four-Gated City (1969). The Children of Violence series, follows the life of protagonist Martha Quest "from girlhood to middle age".
Landlocked (1965) is the fourth novel in British Nobel Prize in Literature-winner Doris Lessing five volume, semi-autobiographical, series, Children of Violence. The first volume is Martha Quest (1952), and the others are, A Proper Marriage (1954), A Ripple from the Storm (1958), and The Four-Gated City (1969). The Children of Violence series, follows the life of protagonist Martha Quest "from girlhood to middle age".