Nobel laureate Lessing criticizes Mugabe

By Niklas Pollard

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Nobel prize-winning author Doris Lessing accused Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe on Friday of depriving people of the chance to buy books or write them because of his "reign of terror".

In her Nobel laureate lecture, Lessing said rampant inflation in Zimbabwe, now the world's highest at nearly 8,000 percent, meant an English paperback cost several years' wages, putting books out of reach for readers.

"It is said that a people gets the government it deserves, but I do not think it is true of Zimbabwe," she said in a speech read out at the Swedish Academy by her British publisher Nicholas Pearson.

"Our organization got books from where we could, but remember that a good paperback from England cost a month's wages: that was before Mugabe's reign of terror. Now with inflation, it would cost several years' wages," she said.

Several years ago Lessing helped distribute books from abroad in Zimbabwe.

The 88-year-old novelist, who was raised in what was then Southern Rhodesia and is now Zimbabwe, was unable to deliver the traditional address in person and will not attend the prize ceremony due to poor health.

"Writers are not made in Zimbabwe. Not easily, not under Mugabe," the British author said in the pre-written speech.

Mugabe accuses his Western foes of sabotaging the country's economy in retaliation for his seizure of white-owned commercial farms for blacks.

He is in Lisbon this weekend to attend the Africa-EU leaders' summit and his attendance has drawn criticism. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown boycotted the meeting to protest the Zimbabwean president's rule and human rights record.

The EU asked Mugabe to join summit after many African leaders said they would not attend unless he was invited.

The lectures by each laureate are a centerpiece of the Nobel Week celebrations which culminate with formal award ceremonies in Stockholm and Oslo on December 10, the anniversary of the death of Swedish dynamite millionaire Alfred Nobel.

(Reporting by Niklas Pollard; editing by Elizabeth Piper)