Victoria Glendinning

Victoria Glendinning was born in Sheffield, England, on April 23, 1937. She studied modern languages at Oxford and worked as a teacher and social worker before taking on the role of assistant editor at "The Times Literary Supplement" in 1974. Her works include the essay "A Suppressed Cry: Life and Death of a Quaker Daughter" (a biography of her ancestor Winnie Seebohm), 1969, the novels "The Grown-Ups," 1989, "Electricity," 1995, and "Flight," 2002, as well as award-winning biographies of authors Elizabeth Bowen, 1977, Edith Sitwell, 1981 (James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography, Duff Cooper Prize), Vita Sackville-West, 1983 (Whitbread Biography Award), Rebecca West, 1987, Anthony Trollope, 1992 (Whitbread Biography Award), and Jonathan Swift, 1998. She is currently the president of the English PEN Club, a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, and an honorary doctorate holder from the universities of Southampton, Ulster, Dublin, and York. In 1998, she was awarded the honorary distinction of CBE (Commander of the British Empire). She writes literary criticism and articles for various magazines and has served on the judging panel for the Booker Prize.