Free Woman: Life, Liberation and Doris Lessing - Tapa dura

An extraordinary meditation on what it means to be a clever, engaged woman two generations after Lessing . A classical, precise use of language . Most compelling . Physically and intellectually intimate (Patrick French Guardian)

A fascinating mix of literary criticism, cultural history and memoir so exposing that it can almost make you blush. Feigel writes with singing clarity in prose that sometimes verges on the hypnotic. Her reimagining of Lessing's home and childhood in what was then Rhodesia is vivid and enthralling . Absorbing and highly enjoyable (Christina Patterson Sunday Times)

Free Woman is a valuable and brave contribution to a discussion that shows no sign of resolution (Stephanie Merritt Observer)

The most intriguing and certainly the bravest work of literary scholarship I have ever read (Deborah Levy)

Ironic, beautiful and rather moving (Joanna Kavenna Literary Review)

Free Woman is not a biography, but the same artistic process is at work: as a biographer, you think you are going to possess your subject, but they always end up possessing you. It's fertile ground, and Feigel a fine explorer. I really enjoyed this book. (Sara Wheeler Spectator)

A bravura close reading, as easy and intimate as a conversation (Hermione Eyre Evening Standard)

Lara Feigel's Free Woman has taken on the formidable Doris for a new generation . Feigel has the gift of converting complex thoughts into coherent sentences that delight (The Times)

Free Woman is worth reading as a piece of complicated thought, and one that's funny and sexy and frank, to boot (Lily Meyer NPR)

Brilliant and daring . a tour de force of biography writing and self-discovery ... Free Woman is simultaneously an incisive book of scholarship and a brave, liberating memoir (Sunday Times SA)