Literature Award – Victoria Hislop
Initially she was known in literary and bibliophile circles, until the screening of the TELEVISION series “The Island”, which is a metaphor for her book of the same name, made her not only well-known, but also very dear throughout Greece.
Victoria Hislop was born in the Kent area of south-east England and studied English literature at Oxford University, then became involved in publishing and journalism. During her tenure as a journalist, she wrote about education, children and travel and found herself as an envoy to every continent on earth.
Inspired by a visit to Spinalonga, the abandoned island of lepers, he wrote the novel “The Island” in 2005. With this book he officially entered the world of literature.
Her delicate pen was in the process of touching millions of people almost all over the world.
“The Island” became an international bestseller with over 5 million copies sold worldwide and was transferred to television, in a 26-episode TELEVISION series that was screened twice by Mega.
It should be noted that she turned down a hollywood proposal to make a movie because she feared her book would become a horror movie, which she didn’t want.
She was ranked among the 100 most successful books in the decade and was awarded the title of newest author of the year at the British Book Awards.
It is no coincidence, of course, that she is an ambassador for Lepra, a UK charity that raises money to treat the three million people suffering from the disease around the world.
Her love for the Mediterranean then led her to Spain and in her book “The Return” The Return ,which also became a bestseller in the UK, she returns to Greece and writes about the painful secrets of the civil war.
We find it again in Greece. With her third novel, The Thread, which tells the impressive and troubled history of Thessaloniki and its people in the 20th century. From the puzing of Izmir to their daily lives the heroes are sketched with particular sensitivity. It was published in 2011 and received widespread recognition. At the same time she confirmed her reputation as an inspirational storyteller and was nominated at the British Book Awards.
This was followed by the very wondrous collection of Greek short stories, The Last Dance and Other Stories.
The book Sunrise, about Cyprus, released in September 2014 was the number one bestseller in the UK and Greece.
This is followed by Cartes Postales from Greece, which is her first work with color and fancy illustration. It is the story of an English woman in the Peloponnese and beyond – and is inspired by the motto “Live your life to the fullest”
The book was first sold in the UK as soon as it was released in 2017 and held the top spot for five weeks. It has already been translated into ten languages and was nominated for the British Books Novel of the Year award.
Victoria’s books are translated into more than thirty-five languages and have become bestsellers in China, Greece, France, Israel, Norway and the United Kingdom. He has also won many literary awards in France.
After all, in her writing, one recognizes a particularly talented writer, who digs, knows, learns and deepens in the historical context of her stories and then skillfully uses fiction to set up wonderful fictional scenes and images full of emotion and humanity.
In addition to studying the Greek language (after all, her ultimate ambition is to read everything and everything without the presence of a dictionary next to her), she spends her free time playing tennis, going to theatre and cinema and travelling. Victoria divides her time between the UK and Greece, where she has her own home.
After all this it would be unnecessary to say why the prize for literature is awarded to a British woman who knows Greece and the Greeks better than anyone and lovingly recommends The Greece of yesterday and today all over the land.
