In 1956, the writer Doris Lessing wrote in her first piece for the New Statesman that she feared she’d be refused entry into South Africa. Lessing, at the time, was an out and proud member of the Communist Party – “I have made no secret of the fact” – but despite the party’s unpopularity with the British establishment at the time, she wondered if her fears were overblown: “The idea that MI5 would send warnings to South Africa of my approach seems to border on megalomania.” Friends accused her of having a “persecution complex” for believing she might be a priority for secret services.
But over half a century on, it turns out that Lessing, who died in 2013, was right, and the surveillance ran even deeper than she guessed. For the first time, redacted MI5 files seen by Vice ahead of their public release confirm that Lessing was monitored by the agency throughout the 1940s and 50s. MI5 agents intercepted Lessing’s post, followed her family, and recruited her friends to inform on her. Included in the files are Lessing’s articles – including, presumably, her New Statesman pieces – and reviews of her novels.
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