Victoria Glendinning (''née'' Seebohm; born 23 April 1937) is a British biographer, critic, broadcaster and novelist. She is an Honorary Vice-President of

English PEN Founded in 1921, English PEN is one of the world's first non-governmental organisations and among the first international bodies advocating for human rights. English PEN was the founding centre of PEN International, a worldwide writers' associati ...

and Vice-President of the

Royal Society of Literature The Royal Society of Literature (RSL) is a learned society founded in 1820, by George IV of the United Kingdom, King George IV, to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent". A charity that represents the voice of literature in the UK, th ...

. She won the

James Tait Black Memorial Prize The James Tait Black Memorial Prizes are literary prizes awarded for literature written in the English language. They, along with the Hawthornden Prize, are Britain's oldest literary awards. Based at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, Unit ...

and the

Whitbread Prize The Costa Book Awards were a set of annual literary awards recognising English-language books by writers based in UK and Ireland. Originally named the Whitbread Book Awards from 1971 to 2005 after its first sponsor, the Whitbread company, then ...

for biography.

Early life and education

She was born in

Sheffield Sheffield is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is Historic counties o ...

to a

Quaker Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of Christian denomination, denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belie ...

family. Her father was the banker Frederic Seebohm (created a

life peer In the United Kingdom, life peers are appointed members of the peerage whose titles cannot be inherited, in contrast to hereditary peers. In modern times, life peerages, always created at the rank of baron, are created under the Life Peerages ...

as Baron Seebohm in April 1972), while her great-grandfather was the economic historian, also called Frederic Seebohm. Her mother was clever, "but she never did anything with it, except wait for my father to come home". Her sister is Caroline Seebohm, the American biographer. Glendinning grew up near

York York is a cathedral city with Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. It is the historic county town of Yorkshire. The city has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a ...

and after attending

Millfield School Millfield is a public school (English independent day and boarding school for pupils aged 13–18) located in Street, Somerset, England. It was founded in 1935. Millfield is a registered charity and is the largest co-educational boarding scho ...

in Somerset, went up to

Somerville College Somerville College, a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England, was founded in 1879 as Somerville Hall, one of its first two women's colleges. Among its alumnae have been Margaret Thatcher, Indira Gandhi, Dorothy Hodgkin, Ir ...

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

to study modern languages.

Awards and honours

She is the only person to have won the

(now the Costa Book Award) for biography twice, for her works on Vita Sackville-West (1983) and Anthony Trollope (1992). She won the

in 1981 for her biography of Edith Sitwell. She was appointed CBE in 1998. She was awarded an

honorary doctorate An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or ''ad hon ...

Trinity College Dublin , name_Latin = Collegium Sanctae et Individuae Trinitatis Reginae Elizabethae juxta Dublin , motto = ''Perpetuis futuris temporibus duraturam'' (Latin) , motto_lang = la , motto_English = It will last i ...

in 1995 and by the

University of York , mottoeng = On the threshold of wisdom , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £8.0 million , budget = £403.6 million , chancellor = Heather Melville , vice_chancellor = Charlie Jeffery , students ...

in 2000.

Marriages and children

In the second year of her degree, she married one of her Spanish lecturers,

Nigel Glendinning Oliver Nigel Valentine Glendinning (16 October 1929 – 23 February 2013), known as Nigel Glendinning, was a scholar and authority on Francisco Goya, Goya and 18th Century Spanish literature. He wrote a history of Spanish literature in the age o ...

in 1958. They divorced in 1981. Her second husband

Terence de Vere White Terence de Vere White (29 April 1912 – 17 June 1994) was an Irish lawyer, writer and editor. Life Career Born in Dublin, de Vere White studied at Trinity College, Dublin where he qualified as a solicitor. He later became a partner in a ...

, father of

Dervla Murphy Dervla Murphy (28 November 1931 – 22 May 2022) was an Irish touring cyclist and author of adventure travel books, writing for more than 50 years. Murphy is best known for her 1965 book '' Full Tilt: Ireland to India with a Bicycle'', about a ...

's only child, died of

Parkinson's disease Parkinson's disease (PD), or simply Parkinson's, is a long-term degenerative disorder of the central nervous system that mainly affects the motor system. The symptoms usually emerge slowly, and as the disease worsens, non-motor symptoms becom ...

in 1994. In 1996 she married Kevin O'Sullivan, who had previously been married to

Shirley Conran Shirley Conran OBE (née Pearce; born 21 September 1932) is a British novelist and journalist. Early life Born in 1932, she attended St. Paul's Girls School, London, and then a finishing school in Switzerland which later provided some inspir ...

. She had four sons before she was 28: sportswriter Matthew Glendinning, with whom she coauthored the book ''Sons and Mothers''; mathematician

Paul Glendinning Paul Glendinning is a professor of Applied Mathematics, in the School of Mathematics at the University of Manchester who is known for his work on dynamical systems, specifically models of the time-evolution of complex mathematical or physical p ...

; philosopher

Simon Glendinning Simon Glendinning (born 1964) is an English philosopher. Glendinning is Professor of European Philosophy and Head of department in the European Institute at the London School of Economics. Academic career Glendinning studied philosophy at the ...

; and photographer and artist

Hugo Glendinning Hugo or HUGO may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Hugo'' (film), a 2011 film directed by Martin Scorsese * Hugo Award, a science fiction and fantasy award named after Hugo Gernsback * Hugo (franchise), a children's media franchise based on a ...

. She sent her children to the local state school.

Selected publications

*''A suppressed cry : life and death of a Quaker daughter'', 1969, Routledge & Kegan Paul *''Elizabeth Bowen: Portrait of a Writer'', 1977, Weidenfeld & Nicolson (on

Elizabeth Bowen Elizabeth Bowen CBE (; 7 June 1899 – 22 February 1973) was an Irish-British novelist and short story writer notable for her books about the "big house" of Irish landed Protestants as well her fiction about life in wartime London. Life E ...

) *''Edith Sitwell: A Unicorn Among Lions'', 1981, Weidenfeld & Nicolson (on

Edith Sitwell Dame Edith Louisa Sitwell (7 September 1887 – 9 December 1964) was a British poet and critic and the eldest of the three literary Sitwells. She reacted badly to her eccentric, unloving parents and lived much of her life with her governess ...

) *''Vita: The Life of V. Sackville-West'', 1983, Weidenfeld & Nicolson (on

Vita Sackville-West Victoria Mary, Lady Nicolson, CH (née Sackville-West; 9 March 1892 – 2 June 1962), usually known as Vita Sackville-West, was an English author and garden designer. Sackville-West was a successful novelist, poet and journalist, as wel ...

) *''Rebecca West: A Life'', 1987, Weidenfeld & Nicolson (on

Rebecca West Dame Cicily Isabel Fairfield (21 December 1892 – 15 March 1983), known as Rebecca West, or Dame Rebecca West, was a British author, journalist, literary critic and travel writer. An author who wrote in many genres, West reviewed books ...

) *''The Grown-Ups'', 1989, Hutchinson (a novel set in the contemporary literary world) *''Trollope'', 1992, Hutchinson (a biography of

Anthony Trollope Anthony Trollope (; 24 April 1815 – 6 December 1882) was an English novelist and civil servant of the Victorian era. Among his best-known works is a series of novels collectively known as the '' Chronicles of Barsetshire'', which revolves ar ...

) *''Electricity'', 1995, Hutchinson (a novel) *''Sons and Mothers'', (co-editor with Matthew Glendinning) 1996, Virago, *''Jonathan Swift'', 1998, Hutchinson (on

Jonathan Swift Jonathan Swift (30 November 1667 – 19 October 1745) was an Anglo-Irish Satire, satirist, author, essayist, political pamphleteer (first for the Whig (British political party), Whigs, then for the Tories (British political party), Tories), poe ...

) *''The Weekenders'', (contributor), 2001, Ebury (from a short visit to Sudan) *''Flight'', 2002, Scribner *''Leonard Woolf: a biography'', 2006, Simon & Schuster (on

Leonard Woolf Leonard Sidney Woolf (; – ) was a British political theorist, author, publisher, and civil servant. He was married to author Virginia Woolf. As a member of the Labour Party and the Fabian Society, Woolf was an avid publisher of his own work ...

) *''Cousin Rosamund'' by Rebecca West (Victoria Glendinning wrote the Afterword)Detail from a copy of the book published by Macmillan (London)in 1985 *''Love's Civil War: Elizabeth Bowen and Charles Ritchie: Letters and Diaries, 1941-1973'', (co-editor with Judith Robertson) 2009, Simon & Schuster (on

and Charles Ritchie *''Raffles and the Golden Opportunity'', 2012, Profile Books Ltd. (a biography of

Stamford Raffles Sir Thomas Stamford Bingley Raffles (5 July 1781 – 5 July 1826) was a British statesman who served as the Lieutenant-Governor of the Dutch East Indies between 1811 and 1816, and Lieutenant-Governor of Bencoolen between 1818 and 1824. He is ...

1781-1826) *''The Butcher's Daughter'', 2018, Duckworth Overlook (a novel centred on the dissolution of

Shaftesbury Abbey Shaftesbury Abbey was an abbey that housed nuns in Shaftesbury, Dorset. It was founded in about 888, and dissolved in 1539 during the English Reformation by the order of Thomas Cromwell, minister to King Henry VIII. At the time it was the second ...

in the 1530s)

Critical studies and reviews

* Review of ''Raffles and the golden opportunity''.

References

External links

British Council short biography
{{DEFAULTSORT:Glendinning, Victoria 1937 births Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature James Tait Black Memorial Prize recipients Living people People educated at Millfield People educated at Heathfield School, Ascot Presidents of the English Centre of PEN Bloomsbury Group biographers 20th-century biographers Writers from Sheffield Daughters of life peers Fellows of Somerville College, Oxford Alumni of Somerville College, Oxford