The Good Terrorist

Author: Lessing, Doris

Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945)

Published on 17 January 2013 by HarperCollins Publishers (Fourth Estate Ltd) in the United Kingdom.

A group of squatters rebel against Mrs Thatcher and erupt into violence in this politicised novel from the author of ‘The Golden Notebook’.

In a London squat a band of bourgeois revolutionaries are united by a loathing of the waste and cruelty they see around them. These maladjusted malcontents try desperately to become involved in terrorist activities far beyond their level of competence. Only Alice seems capable of organising anything. Motherly, practical and determined, she is also easily exploited by the group and ideal fodder for a more dangerous and potent cause. Eventually their naïve radical fantasies turn into a chaos of real destruction, but the aftermath is not as exciting as they had hoped. Nonetheless, while they may not have changed the world, their lives will never be the same again…