Victoria Hislop

The author of ten novels, Victoria Hislop’s deep connection to the Mediterranean began during a childhood holiday, later blossoming through her travel journalism assignments. Her breakthrough novel The Island—inspired by a visit to Spinalonga, a former leper colony in Crete—was a global phenomenon. Selling over six million copies worldwide, it was later adapted into a record-breaking 26-part television series in Greece. 

Victoria’s latest novel is again set in Greece in 1946 and in the midst of a brutal civil war. Over three years, thousands of children were caught in the chaos with huge numbers orphaned, many finding themselves imprisoned alongside their mothers. Others were left to fend for themselves. The Wine-Dark Sea follows the travails of a mother, searching for both a daughter who has been kidnapped and taken behind the Iron Curtain and a boy who, unbeknown to her, has been sold into adoption.

‘Fascinating and moving ... Hislop writes unforgettably’ The Times