Victoria Hislop


Victoria Hislop is an English author.
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Early life and education

Born in Bromley, Kent, Hislop was raised in Tonbridge and educated at Tonbridge Grammar School, a state funded grammar school. She studied English at the University of Oxford where she was an undergraduate student at St Hilda's College, Oxford.

Career

Hislop worked in publishing and as a journalist before becoming an author. Her novel The Island was a number-one bestseller in Britain, its success in part the result of having been selected by the Richard & Judy Book Club for their 2006 Summer Reads. To Nisi was filmed as a television show by the Mega Channel in Greece.
In 2009, she donated the short story "Aflame in Athens" to Oxfam's Ox-Tales project, four collections of British stories written by 38 authors. Her story was published in the "Fire" collection. Hislop has a particular affection for Greece. She visits the country often and has a second home on the island of Crete.

Novels

  • The Island
  • The Return
  • The Thread
  • The Sunrise
  • Cartes Postales from Greece
  • Those Who Are Loved
  • One August Night
  • Maria's Island
  • ''The Figurine''

Short stories

  • One Cretan Evening and Other Stories
  • * "One Cretan Evening"
  • * "The Pine Tree"
  • * "By The Fire"
  • * "The Warmest Christmas Ever"
  • * "Aflame in Athens"
  • ''The Last Dance and Other Stories''

Non-fiction

Sink or Swim: The Self-help Book for Men Who Never Read Them

Awards and honours

Hislop was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2024.
Hislop holds an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Sheffield, serves on the British Committee for the Reunification of the Parthenon Marbles with the Acropolis of Athens and was appointed Vice-President of the British School at Athens.

Personal life

Victoria married Private Eye editor Ian Hislop on 16 April 1988 in Oxford; the couple have two children: Emily Helen and Will Hislop.
Hislop lived in London for more than twenty years, prior to setting up home in Sissinghurst, Kent. In 2012, the family acquired a townhouse in Chelsea.
In 2020, Hislop was granted honorary Greek citizenship for promoting the modern history of Greece and culture of Greece. The following year she was a contestant on Dancing with the Stars, the Greek version of Strictly Come Dancing.