British author Victoria Hislop granted honorary Greek citizenship
British author Victoria Hislop was officially granted honorary Greek citizenship on Thursday, in a ceremony in Athens.
“Today is a very important day because, for many years, I have loved Greece. It is no secret that I love the people, the landscape, the culture, all that…Thank you very much for the great honor today,” she said after her swearing-in before the general secretary of Citizenship, Athanasios Balerbas.
After the ceremony, Balerbas offered Hislop a sculpture composition from the Benaki Museum.
Earlier this summer, the British writer was named an honorary Greek by decree of President Katerina Sakellaropoulou, “for her important services toward Greece, for the international exposure she gave to the historic site of Spinalonga and her promotion of modern Greek culture and history.”
The author is widely known for her best-seller book The Island, which was first published in 2005.
In Greece, the book was adapted to a very successful TV drama series, making it the most expensive local television production of all time, in 2010.
Hislop has also written The Return (2008), The Thread (2011), The Sunrise (2014), La ville orpheline (French 2015), Cartes Postales from Greece (2016) and Those Who Are Loved (2019).
