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From “British author Doris Lessing reacts to Nobel win” by ReutersLC

Doris Lessing reacts to her Nobel Prize win

Thirty years of work, and then the news arrives on a London street.

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Key points

Lessing learns she has won the Nobel Prize for literature and answers a reporter's question about it straight away. 0:21
Lessing is not especially excited, because she says the news has been a long time coming. 0:32
Lessing jokes that a certain professor must have died for her to win, a remark that shows her dry humour. 0:50
The interviewer contrasts the Nobel, which is seen as recognising a writer's whole life's work, with the Booker Prize, which has been criticised as a sort of horse race. 1:15
Lessing says she has won every prize in Europe and calls the run a royal flush, which is how she frames the honour. 2:03

Chapters of the doorstep

Lessing says she has been working for 30 years, so the news is not a surprise. 0:32
She says the Nobel Prize for literature honours a life's work, unlike the Booker. 1:20
She says she has won every major prize in Europe and is delighted by them. 2:03

Street details

Black cab with Rightmove branding — A black London taxi with a Rightmove.co.uk sign on its side, where the arrival is filmed.
Vintage white Mini — A small white vintage Mini is parked on the street behind Lessing.
House number 27 — A brick house with the number 27 on a white pillar beside the front door.
House number 24 — A white pillar with the number 24 marks the house where Lessing is standing.