Viv Groskop
Viv Groskop (born 1973, Hampshire) is a British journalist and writer. She has written for publications including The Guardian, Evening Standard, The Observer, Daily Mail, Mail on Sunday and Red magazine. She writes on arts, books, popular culture and current affairs, often with a feminist slant.[1]
Groskop grew up in Bruton, Somerset, with her parents and younger sister Trudy, where she won a scholarship to Bruton School for Girls. She studied Russian and French at Selwyn College, Cambridge, graduating with a first class degree. According to biographical information distributed when Groskop was on the panel of Any Questions on BBC Radio 4, she discovered at this time that she has Russian ancestry. She has an MA with distinction in Russian Studies from University College London SSEES.[2]
She began her career in journalism at Esquire as an editorial assistant for Rosie Boycott at the age of 22. Groskop joined the Daily Express while Boycott was editor, becoming a columnist on the Sunday Express at the age of 25. She has been described as one of the most successful freelance journalists in the UK,[3] and has twice been short-listed for the Periodical Publishers Association Columnist of the Year.[4]
Groskop is a contributing editor at Russian Vogue. For the UK press, she has interviewed Russian speakers in their mother tongue, gaining insights which could be lost in a translation - among them Marina Litvinenko[5] and Beslan school hostage crisis survivor Fatima Dzgoeva.[6] She also interviews in French, including the surviving daughter of Suite Francaise author Irène Némirovsky.[7] She performs occasionally on the amateur stand up comedy circuit in London[8] though on her Twitter page @vivgroskop she describes herself as "Writer. Mother. Feminist. Russophile. Very very bad stand-up comedian."
Groskop appears from time to time on Sky News, BBC Radio 4's Today programme,[9] Any Questions and Woman's Hour[10] and on Nick Ferrari's LBC 97.3 show.
[edit] Quoted
Groskop interviewed Dasha Zhukova, art collector and girlfriend of Roman Abramovich for The Guardian in August 2008.[11] The headline for that story has often been quoted in subsequent interviews:[12] "She (Zhukova) can't name a single artist she likes". However, the text of the interview is more nuanced, as Zhukova says: " I have never been a collector. I have a few pieces that I got for my birthdays or that I bought for myself: I acquire things that speak to me and put them on my wall. When I see things I like, I just know." She doesn't get any more specific: when I (Groskop) ask her which artists she particularly likes, she says: "I'm, like, really bad at remembering names."
[edit] References
- ^ http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/lifestyle/article-23751584-rod-liddle-maybe-i-was-wrong-to-say-i-wouldnt-sleep-with-harriet-harman.do;jsessionid=F4C28FE94482797F8644405C8A4CE6BA
- ^ http://www.ssees.ac.uk/prospect/ma_rus.htm
- ^ Kira Cochrane Mslexia magazine, October 2009
- ^ http://www.allmediascotland.com/articles/1044/21032007/uk_mag_awards_down_to_shortlist
- ^ http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2007/jun/03/russia.vivgroskop
- ^ http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/aug/08/beslan-siege-five-years-on
- ^ http://www.theage.com.au/news/books/a-masterpiece-from-historys-suitcase/2006/03/02/1141191791456.html
- ^ http://www.timeout.com/london/comedy/event/158596/mama-jong-s-new-act-showcase
- ^ http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_8243000/8243211.stm
- ^ http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/womanshour/03/2009_39_thu.shtml
- ^ http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2008/aug/27/art.russia
- ^ http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2009/oct/04/dasha-zhukova-interview-roman-abramovich
[edit] External links
- Guardian - Viv Groskop http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/vivgroskop
- Evening Standard - Viv Groskop http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard-home/columnistarchive/Viv%20Groskop-columnist-602-archive.do
