Alfred and Emily

About “Alfred and Emily”

Alfred and Emily is a work by Doris Lessing that explores the lives of her parents, her father and her mother Emily, each profoundly affected by the Great War. The book presents a fictional account of what their lives might have been like had there been no war, beginning with their meeting at a village cricket match outside Colchester, followed by an examination of their actual relationship marked by the war's lasting impact, their move to Africa, and the effect of their marriage on Doris Lessing's upbringing.