These two sensitive and highly contemporary novels, about the inexplicable nature of human relationships, center around Jane Somers, ostensibly their author, a handsome, fashionable middle-aged woman, the editor of a successful woman's magazine. Since the death of her husband - with whom she seldom had any serious communication and for whom she hardly grieved - she has felt emotionally disconnected. By chance, in the local pharmacy, she meets Maudie, a skinny, tattered, dirty scrap of humanity in her eighties, possessed of a fierce and indomitable pride. The Diary of a Good Neighbour is the story of the extraordinary friendship that develops between the two and the transforming effect it has on both. If the Old Could... continues the story of Jane when other changes once again dislocate her life and she most improbably falls in love with a man she literally meets on the street. The realization of the voice and the very essence of Jane is one of the author's considerable achievements.

多丽丝•莱辛（1919—2013），英国当代著名作家，2007年诺贝尔文学奖得主，被誉为继伍尔芙之后最伟大的女性作家。

1919年出生于伊朗。幼年时在南非农场度过，家境贫困，十四岁因眼疾辍学，十五岁离家做保姆，后从事过接线员、速记员等工作。

曾两次结婚又离异。1949年离开南非，留下丈夫和两个孩子，携幼子移居英国追寻心目中的自由生活，全部家当是皮包中的一部小说草稿。该书不久以《野草在歌唱》为题出版，莱辛从此一举成名。

1962年，代表作《金色笔记》问世，成为其摘得诺贝尔奖桂冠的充分理由。此后，笔耕不辍，一生出版了五十余部作品。

诺贝尔文学奖评委会曾如此评价：“多丽丝•莱辛既是文学史中的典范，也是当下文学创作的先锋。她改变了我们审视这个世界的方式。”