Gordimer was born in 1923 just outside Johannesburg to a Latvian father and a British mother - Hannah 'Nan' Myers from London.She was home schooled and started writing from an early age publishing her first stories in 1937 at the age of 15.Gordimer then went on to write more than 30 books including novels 'My Son's Story', 'Burger's Daughter' and 'July's People'.She won the Booker Prize in 1974 fo