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Victoria Elizabeth Coren Mitchell (' Coren; born ) is a British writer, TV presenter and professional poker player. Coren Mitchell writes weekly columns for ''
The Telegraph ''The Telegraph'', ''Daily Telegraph'', ''Sunday Telegraph'' and other variant names are popular names for newspapers. Newspapers with these titles include: Australia * ''The Telegraph'' (Adelaide), a newspaper in Adelaide, South Australia, publ ...
'' and has hosted the BBC television quiz show ''
Only Connect ''Only Connect'' is a British television quiz show presented by Victoria Coren Mitchell. In the series, teams compete in a tournament of finding connections between seemingly unrelated clues. The title is taken from a passage in E. M. Fo ...
'' since 2008.


Early life

Victoria Elizabeth Coren was born in
Hammersmith Hammersmith is a district of West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It is the administrative centre of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, and identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London. I ...
,
West London West London is the western part of London, England, north of the River Thames, west of the City of London, and extending to the Greater London boundary. The term is used to differentiate the area from the other parts of London: North Lond ...
, the only daughter of the humourist and journalist
Alan Coren Alan Coren (27 June 1938 – 18 October 2007) was an English humourist, writer and satirist who was a regular panellist on the BBC radio quiz ''The News Quiz'' and a team captain on BBC television's ''Call My Bluff''. Coren was also a journali ...
and Anne Kasriel. Her father had been brought up in an
Orthodox Jewish Orthodox Judaism is the collective term for the traditionalist and theologically conservative branches of contemporary Judaism. Theologically, it is chiefly defined by regarding the Torah, both Written and Oral, as revealed by God to Moses ...
household. She grew up in
Cricklewood Cricklewood is an area of London, England, which spans the boundaries of three London boroughs: London Borough of Barnet, Barnet to the east, London Borough of Brent, Brent to the west and London Borough of Camden, Camden to the south-east. The C ...
,
North London North London is the northern part of London, England, north of the River Thames. It extends from Clerkenwell and Finsbury, on the edge of the City of London financial district, to Greater London's boundary with Hertfordshire. The term ''nor ...
, with her elder brother, journalist
Giles Coren Giles Robin Patrick Coren (born 29 July 1969) is a British columnist, food writer, and television and radio presenter. He has been a restaurant critic for ''The Times'' newspaper since 2002, and was named Food and Drink Writer of the Year at the ...
. She is related to Canadian journalist Michael Coren. She attended independent girls' schools between the ages of five and eighteen, including
St Paul's Girls' School St Paul's Girls' School is an independent day school for girls, aged 11 to 18, located in Brook Green, Hammersmith, in West London, England. History St Paul's Girls' School was founded by the Worshipful Company of Mercers in 1904, using part o ...
, and read English at
St John's College, Oxford St John's College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford. Founded as a men's college in 1555, it has been coeducational since 1979.Communication from Michael Riordan, college archivist Its founder, Sir Thomas White, intended to pro ...
.


Writing

At the age of 14, Coren had a short story published under a pseudonym in ''
Just Seventeen ''Just Seventeen'', often referred to as ''J-17'', was a fortnightly magazine aimed at teenage girls, published by Emap from October 1983 to April 2004. A special preview edition was given away free with sister magazine ''Smash Hits'' on 13 Octob ...
'' magazine and then won a competition in ''
The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was fo ...
'' to write a column about teenage life for their "Weekend" section, which she continued writing during her own teenage years. During a Channel 4 broadcast, she explained that one Telegraph reader had written to her, criticising her column and had used a very great number of swear words, all in Latin. Her books include ''Love 16'' and '' Once More, with Feeling'', about her attempt (with co-author Charlie Skelton) to make "the greatest porn film ever". Their jobs reviewing porn films for the ''
Erotic Review ''Erotic Review'' is a monthly UK-based lifestyle publication. Covering eroticism and sex-related topics, it was first published in 1995 as a print magazine, migrating to an eZine format in June 2010. In addition to the monthly magazine, avail ...
'' led them to believe that most of what they were watching was terrible and that they could make better films themselves. She adapted the newspaper columns of John Diamond into a play called ''A Lump in my Throat'', which was performed during the 2000
Edinburgh Festival __NOTOC__ This is a list of arts and cultural festivals regularly taking place in Edinburgh, Scotland. The city has become known for its festivals since the establishment in 1947 of the Edinburgh International Festival and the Edinburgh Fes ...
at the
Assembly Rooms In Great Britain and Ireland, especially in the 18th and 19th centuries, assembly rooms were gathering places for members of the higher social classes open to members of both sexes. At that time most entertaining was done at home and there wer ...
, the Grace Theatre and the New End Theatre in London, before she adapted it again for a
BBC Two BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream a ...
docudrama Docudrama (or documentary drama) is a genre of television and film, which features dramatized re-enactments of actual events. It is described as a hybrid of documentary and drama and "a fact-based representation of real event". Docudramas typic ...
with
Neil Pearson Neil John Pearson (born 27 April 1959) is a British actor, known for his work on television. He was nominated for the 1994 BAFTA TV Award for Best Actor for '' Between the Lines'' (1992–1994). His other television roles include '' Drop the ...
, broadcast in 2001. Victoria and Giles Coren wrote an introduction to ''Chocolate and Cuckoo Clocks'' an anthology of the best comic writing by their father Alan, published by
Canongate The Canongate is a street and associated district in central Edinburgh, the capital city of Scotland. The street forms the main eastern length of the Royal Mile while the district is the main eastern section of Edinburgh's Old Town. It began ...
in October 2008. Her poker memoir ''For Richer, For Poorer: A Love Affair with Poker'' (the subtitle changed to ''Confessions of a Player'' when released in paperback in 2011) was published in September 2009, and was well reviewed in ''
The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fo ...
'' and ''
The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the ...
''.


Ormerod hoax

In 2007, after the death of her father, having put a notice in ''The Times'' inviting those who knew him to attend a service, she was warned by a friend that a "gang of serial funeral crashers" based in the south of England were checking death notices to find funerals and memorial services to crash for their own enjoyment. After receiving some suspicious email replies to her notice, she instigated a hoax to trap the group. She created "Sir William Ormerod" and placed a death notice. A week later, she placed another notice in ''The Times'' "in the guise of his grieving boyfriend Peter" for his memorial service "followed by a drinks reception". She reported that the group duly claimed to have known Ormerod and applied for tickets. After first suggesting holding the memorial service and putting
laxative Laxatives, purgatives, or aperients are substances that loosen stools and increase bowel movements. They are used to treat and prevent constipation. Laxatives vary as to how they work and the side effects they may have. Certain stimulant, lubr ...
in the canapés, she got a friend to telephone the ringleader (a serial fraudster and ex-magistrate) to let it be known that she knew who they were and that he was not welcome, but she let the others in the gang come to her father's service, "gave them a drink and sent them on their way".''Chain Reaction'', Series 11, Ian Hislop interviews Victoria Coren-Mitchell
/ref> She has written articles in the ''Observer'' and ''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the G ...
'' about her experience.


Poker

Coren Mitchell was the first woman to win an event on the
European Poker Tour The European Poker Tour (EPT) is a series of poker tournaments similar to those in the World Poker Tour (WPT), created by John Duthie, winner of the inaugural Poker Million tournament. It began in 2004 as part of the worldwide explosion in Te ...
, the first player to win both a televised professional tournament (EPT London 2006) and a televised celebrity tournament (Celebrity Poker Club 2005), and the first player to win two European Poker Tour Main Events (EPT London 2006 and EPT Sanremo 2014). She frequently plays
Texas hold 'em Texas hold 'em (also known as Texas holdem, hold 'em, and holdem) is one of the most popular variants of the card game of poker. Two cards, known as hole cards, are dealt face down to each player, and then five community cards are dealt fac ...
at the Victoria Casino in London's Edgware Road. As a commentator/presenter she has presented ''William Hill Poker Grand Prix 2'' (Sky Sports) and ''Late Night Poker'' and ''The Poker Nations Cup'' for
Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service in ...
, and ''World Poker Tour'' for ITV2; and has commentated on ''The Monte Carlo EPT, Grosvenor UK Poker Tour'' (Channel 4), ''Ultimate Poker Challenge'' ( Channel 5). During her poker career, she has become a close friend of
The Hendon Mob The Hendon Mob are a group of four professional poker players from London, England: Joe Beevers, Barny Boatman, Ross Boatman, and Ram Vaswani. The name of the group was first publicised by the ''Evening Standard'' newspaper in September 2000. ...
and mixes weekly home games with frequent visits to two regular casinos. She appeared in five episodes of ''
Late Night Poker ''Late Night Poker'' is a British television series that helped popularize poker in the 2000s. It used "under the table" cameras that enabled the viewer to see each player's cards. The show originally ran for six series between 1999 and 2002 ...
'', although she never made it to a series grand final. However, in ''Late Night Poker'''s spin-off ''
Celebrity Poker Club ''Celebrity Poker Club'' is a British television series featuring celebrities playing poker. It aired on Challenge for three series from 2003 to 2005 as a spin-off from Channel 4's popular ''Late Night Poker'' series. Liam Flood was the casino ...
'', she defeated
Willie Thorne William Joseph Thorne (4 March 195417 June 2020) was an English professional snooker player. He won one ranking title, the 1985 Classic. He also reached the final of the 1985 UK Championship, losing 16–14 to Steve Davis after leading 13–8 ...
to win the series two grand final before joining
Jesse May Jesse May is an American poker commentator and player. Jesse May was born in New York City in 1971 and raised in Madison, New Jersey, where he first became hooked on poker playing with friends. In 1988, he started attending The University of C ...
as the commentator in series three. In the 2003 Hold-Em 100 tournament in London, she was a guest dealer for the final table. On 24 September 2006 she won the main event of the European Poker Tour London, earning a prize of £500,000 and defeating Australian professional Emad Tahtouh. On 20 November 2011 she finished second in the International Federation of Poker's inaugural The Table World Championship, eventually losing heads-up with 29-year-old Spaniard Raul Mestre. She received $100,000 for second place, $10,000 of which she donated to
Age UK Age UK is a registered charity in the United Kingdom, formed on 25 February 2009, and launched on 1 April 2009, which combined the operations of the previously separate charities Age Concern England and Help the Aged to form the UK's largest ch ...
. In April 2014 she won the main event of the European Poker Tour San Remo, earning €476,100 and becoming the first player to have won two EPT titles. her total live tournament winnings exceed $2,500,000, making her the 14th best-earning female live poker player ever. She has been a member of Team
PokerStars PokerStars is an online poker cardroom that was a part of The Stars Group until it was sold to Flutter Entertainment on May 5, 2020. It can be accessed through downloadable poker clients for the Windows, macOS, Android (operating system), Andro ...
Pro, but in November 2014 she removed her endorsement a few hours after PokerStars had announced they were starting an online casino. She said she was uncomfortable about potential addiction by vulnerable people to a site where the odds are in favour of the operator, and did not want to be associated with such an operation. She has said that she regularly stays up until 6am, "Smoking and drinking and gambling. But I like cooking and gardening too, which makes me sound like a very strange mix of an old lady and teenage boy." When asked about this in 2012, she stated: "It is still true. I'll grow up one day, but not quite yet." Coren Mitchell was inducted into the Women in Poker Hall of Fame in 2016.


Personal life

On 20 March 2012, Coren announced her engagement to actor and comedian David Mitchell. According to David, they first met at a film premiere in 2007, and had a short-lived series of dates, but only began dating properly three years later. The couple married in November 2012, in north London, and their daughter was born in May 2015. In July 2012 she reported that she was terrified of flying, and in August 2012 she
tweeted Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, an ...
that the therapist she was seeing to address her fear had been killed in a plane crash.


Television and radio credits


References


External links


Official website
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Coren Mitchell, Victoria 1972 births Alumni of St John's College, Oxford British gambling writers English columnists English game show hosts English people of Jewish descent Poker players from London European Poker Tour winners Female poker players Journalists from London Living people People from Hammersmith Poker commentators The Guardian journalists The Observer people People from Cricklewood British women columnists Coren family