Victoria Hislop studied English Literature at Oxford University and afterwards worked in book publishing, PR and journalism. During her time as a journalist, she wrote on education and travel for national newspapers and magazines and was sent on assignments around the world.

Inspired by a visit to Spinalonga, the abandoned Greek leprosy colony, Victoria wrote The Island in 2005.  She was named Newcomer of the Year at the British Book Awards and the novel became an international bestseller, translated into 40 languages, with over 6 million copies sold worldwide.  It was turned into a 26 part Greek TV series which achieved record ratings for Greece.

Her third novel, The Thread is currently in development with a British TV production company.

All of Victoria’s 10 novels have hit the number one position in the UK charts, but have also been bestsellers in Greece, China, France, Israel and Norway.  She has won several literary awards in France.

As well as studying the Greek language, she is an ambassador for Lepra, a UK charity that raises money to treat the estimated three million leprosy sufferers worldwide, and is also an ambassador for the National Literacy Trust which promotes reading in the UK. In 2019, Victoria was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by the University of Sheffield, and in 2020 she was given Honorary Citizenship by the Greek President for her promotion of Greece.

Her novel, The Figurine, was published in September 2023.