Sigolène Vinson (born 1974) is a former lawyer and actress who became a novelist and journalist. She is the legal correspondent of ''

Charlie Hebdo ''Charlie Hebdo'' (; meaning ''Charlie Weekly'') is a French satirical weekly magazine, featuring cartoons, reports, polemics, and jokes. Stridently non-conformist in tone, the publication has been described as Anti-racism, anti-racist, sceptica ...

'', where she survived the

shooting Shooting is the act or process of discharging a projectile from a ranged weapon (such as a gun, bow, crossbow, slingshot, or blowpipe). Even the acts of launching flame, artillery, darts, harpoons, grenades, rockets, and guided missiles can ...

on 7 January 2015.Sophie Adriansen
« Sigolène Vinson – Écrivain »
''encore-magazine.fr'', 11 October 2014

Life

Vinson was born at

Sainte-Foy-lès-Lyon Sainte-Foy-lès-Lyon (, literally ''Sainte-Foy near Lyon'') is a commune in the Metropolis of Lyon in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region in eastern France. Geography It is a suburb of the city of Lyon, located to the west of the city. It is located ...

. Her family moved shortly afterwards to

Clamart Clamart () is a commune in the southwestern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the centre of Paris. The town is divided into two parts, separated by a forest: ''bas Clamart'', the historical centre, and ''petit Clamart'' with urbaniz ...

and then

Meudon Meudon () is a municipality in the southwestern suburbs of Paris, France. It is in the département of Hauts-de-Seine. It is located from the center of Paris. The city is known for many historic monuments and some extraordinary trees. One of t ...

near Paris, before leaving for

Djibouti Djibouti, ar, جيبوتي ', french: link=no, Djibouti, so, Jabuuti officially the Republic of Djibouti, is a country in the Horn of Africa, bordered by Somalia to the south, Ethiopia to the southwest, Eritrea in the north, and the Red ...

because of her father's job in 1981. She returned to France in 1987. She studied for the stage but later retrained at the Sorbonne to become a lawyer. In 2007 she gave up the law to become a writer. In the same year she was awarded jointly with Philippe Kleinmann the Prix du roman d'aventures for their crime novel ''Bistouri Blues'', the first appearance of the commissaire Cush Dibbeth, who reappeared in ''Substance'' (2015). In 2011 they co-wrote an historical crime novel, ''Double Hélice''. In the same year Vinson's solo novel ''J'ai déserté le pays de l’enfance'' was also published. Since September 2012 she has written a legal column for ''

''. During the

on 7 January 2015 her life was spared by Saïd Kouachi, because she was a woman, on condition that she read the

Koran The Quran (, ; Standard Arabic: , Quranic Arabic: , , 'the recitation'), also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation from God. It is organized in 114 chapters (pl.: , sing.: ...

.''N’aie pas peur. Calme-toi. Je ne te tuerai pas. Tu es une femme. On ne tue pas les femmes. Mais réfléchis à ce que tu fais. Ce que tu fais est mal. Je t’épargne, et puisque je t’épargne, tu liras le Coran.'' Soren Seelow
« "C'est Charlie, venez vite, ils sont tous morts" »
''

Le Monde ''Le Monde'' (; ) is a French daily afternoon newspaper. It is the main publication of Le Monde Group and reported an average circulation of 323,039 copies per issue in 2009, about 40,000 of which were sold abroad. It has had its own website si ...

'', 13 January 2015.

Chérif Kouachi On 7 January 2015, at about 11:30 a.m. CET local time, two French Muslim terrorists and brothers, Saïd and Chérif Kouachi, forced their way into the offices of the French satirical weekly newspaper '' Charlie Hebdo'' in Paris. Armed with ...

however killed another female journalist,

Elsa Cayat Elsa Jeanne Cayat (; 9 March 1960 – 7 January 2015) was a French psychiatrist and psychoanalyst and a columnist for the satirical newspaper '' Charlie Hebdo'' in Paris, France. She was one of 12 victims of the ''Charlie Hebdo'' attack and ...

Works

Novels

* ''J'ai déserté le pays de l'enfance'', Paris, Plon, 2011 * ''Le Caillou'', Paris, Le Tripode, 2015 * ''Courir après les ombres'', Paris, Plon, 2015 * ''Les Jouisseurs'', Paris, Éditions de l'Observatoire, 2017 * ''Maritima'', Paris, Éditions de l'Observatoire, 2019 * ''La Canine de George'', Paris, Éditions de l'Observatoire, 2021

In collaboration with Philippe Kleinmann

* ''Bistouri Blues'', Paris, Éditions du Masque, ''Collection Le Masque'' No 2507, 2007 ; reissued, Paris, Éditions du Masque, ''Collection Masque poche'' No 57, 2015 * ''Double Hélice'', Paris, Éditions du Masque, 2011 * ''Substance'', Paris, Éditions du Masque, 2015

Contributions to works of multiple authorship

* ''Les Aventures du Concierge Masqué - L'Exquise Nouvelle saison 3'', L'exquise Édition, 2013 * ''Enfant, je me souviens,'' UNICEF/Livre de poche, 2016

Notes and references

External links

Babelio: biography and bibliography
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vinson, Sigolene Living people 1974 births Charlie Hebdo people French women lawyers French actresses French women journalists French women novelists People from Sainte-Foy-lès-Lyon