Doris Lessing, this year’s Nobel Prize winner for Literature, has said that the 9/11 attacks across the United States were no more devastating than what happened in Britain at the hands of the IRA.

Lessing was quoted by the Daily Mail as saying that the deaths of almost 3,000 people six years ago was 'not that terrible' compared to the sustained campaign of terror waged by the provos over 30 years.

Lessing, 88, said the attacks were not as "extraordinary" as some Americans thought.

She told Spanish newspaper El Pais: "September 11 was terrible, but if one goes back over the history of the IRA, what happened to the Americans wasn't that terrible.

"Some Americans will think I'm crazy. Many people died, two prominent buildings fell, but it was neither as terrible nor as extraordinary as they think. They're a very naive people, or they pretend to be," she said of the Americans.

"Do you know what people forget? That the IRA attacked with bombs against our Government.

Al Qaeda's 9/11 attacks killed nearly 3,000 people - but Lessing says IRA were worse

"It killed several people while a Conservative congress was being held and in which the Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, was (attending). People forget."

The IRA bombed the Brighton hotel hosting the Conservative Party Conference in October 1984 killing five people, including MP Sir Anthony Berry.

Sir Norman Tebbit's wife, Margaret, was left permanently disabled by the blast.

More than 3,700 died and tens of thousands of people were injured in more than 30 years of violence in Northern Ireland.

During the Northern Ireland Troubles, the IRA murdered about 1,800 civilians and members of the security forces.

The outspoken novelist has a reputation for making controversial comments.

On being told by journalists waiting outside her home last month of her Nobel Prize win she said: "Oh Christ. I couldn't care less." (ANI)