Viv Groskop: Difference between revisions

'''Viv Groskop''' (born 8 July 1973<ref>Viv Groskop [https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/jul/06/ageing-forty-birthday-groskop "I'm 40: the confusion starts here"], ''The Observer'', 6 July 2013</ref>) is a British journalist, writer and comedian. She has written for publications including ''[[The Guardian]]'', ''[[Evening Standard]]'', ''[[The Observer]]'', ''[[Daily Mail]]'', ''[[Mail on Sunday]]'' and ''[[Red (magazine)|Red]]'' magazine.<ref>Hannah Gilchrist, [http://www.redonline.co.uk/red-women/red-panel/women-in-media/viv-groskop-tips-aw11 "Viv Groskop’s Top Tips For Autumn Winter 2011"], ''Red'', 10 October 2011.</ref> She writes on arts, books, popular culture and current affairs, often with a feminist slant.<ref>Viv Groskop, [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 "Rod Liddle: Maybe I was wrong to say I wouldn't sleep with Harriet Harman"], ''Evening Standard'', 2 October 2009.</ref> She is a stand-up comedian,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://vivgroskop.com |title=New book The Anna Karenina Fix |publisher=Viv Groskop |date= |accessdate=2018-03-09}}</ref> MC and improviser who was a finalist in [[Funny Women]] 2012<ref>[http://www.funnywomen.com/magazine/article/557/funny-women-awards-2012-finalist-viv-groskop "Funny Women Awards 2012 Finalist - Viv Groskop"], Funny Women.</ref> and semi-finalist in [[So You Think You're Funny]] 2012.<ref>[http://soyouthinkyourfunny.co.uk/heat-7-contestants "Heat 7 contestants"], So You Think You're Funny?</ref> She is an agony aunt for ''The Pool''<ref>{{cite web|last=Groskop |first=Viv |url=https://www.the-pool.com/archive/life/advice/2015/18/dear-viv-episode-8 |title=Life – Dear Viv: Do trial separations actually work? |publisher=The Pool |date=2015-05-09 |accessdate=2018-03-09}}</ref> and host of the [[Mint Velvet clothing]] podcast "We are Women".<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.mintvelvet.co.uk/magazine/we-are-women-the-podcast/ |title=We are Women &#124; The Podcast 01 |publisher=Mint Velvet |date= |accessdate=2018-03-09}}</ref>▼

Groskop was born in Hampshire and, with her younger sister Trudy, was raised in [[Bruton]], Somerset. She won a scholarship to [[Bruton School for Girls]], and later read Russian and French at [[Selwyn College, Cambridge]], graduating with a first-class degree. She has an MA with distinction in Russian Studies from [[UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.ssees.ac.uk/prospect/ma_rus.htm |title=Archived copy |access-date=2009-10-16 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090531021427/http://www.ssees.ac.uk/prospect/ma_rus.htm |archive-date=2009-05-31 |url-status=dead }}</ref> From her teens, Groskop believed her surname was Russian, until a Canadian cousin<ref>{{cite web|url=https://picturestocktonarchive.wordpress.com/2005/05/13/the-groskop-family-of-stockton/ |title=The Groskop Family of Stockton. &#124; Picture Stockton Archive |publisher=Picturestocktonarchive.wordpress.com |date=2005-05-13 |accessdate=2018-03-09}}</ref> researched her family tree and discovered that the antecedents of the Groskop name was [[Yiddish]] meaning "fathead", and that her Jewish great-great-grandfather Gershon Groskop had come to Great Britain in the 1860s from [[Łódź]] in [[Poland]].<!-- Only source, please do not remove until there is a substitute. --><ref>{{cite news|last=Groskop|first=Viv|url=http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/you/article-4907486/Viv-Groskop-s-exoticism-Tolstoy-s-homeland.html|title=To Russia with unrequited love|work=The Mail on Sunday|date=2 October 2017|accessdate=7 October 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2011/mar/27/pink-academy-census-viv-groskop |title=Let little girls be in the pink &#124; Viv Groskop &#124; Opinion |publisher=The Guardian |date=2011-03-26 |accessdate=2018-03-09}}</ref> Gershon Groskop was also the great-grandfather of television presenter [[Gethin Jones]].<ref>{{cite web|author=Abbie Wightwick |url=http://www.walesonline.co.uk/lifestyle/showbiz/how-tv-star-gethin-jones-2017457 |title=How TV star Gethin Jones' ancestors saved thousands of lives |publisher=Wales Online |date=2012-11-17 |accessdate=2018-03-09}}</ref>▼

Groskop began her career in journalism at ''[[Esquire (magazine)|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,<ref>Kira Cochrane ''[[Mslexia]]'' magazine, October 2009</ref> and has twice been short-listed for the [[Periodical Publishers Association]] Columnist of the Year.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.allmediascotland.com/articles/1044/21032007/uk_mag_awards_down_to_shortlist |title=Archived copy |access-date=2009-10-15 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110719152644/http://www.allmediascotland.com/articles/1044/21032007/uk_mag_awards_down_to_shortlist |archive-date=2011-07-19 |url-status=dead }}</ref>▼

Groskop is a contributing editor at Russian ''[[Vogue (magazine)|Vogue]]''. For the UK press, she has interviewed Russian speakers in their mother tongue – among them Marina Litvinenko, widow of the murdered [[Alexander Litvinenko]]<ref>Viv Groskop [https://www.theguardian.com/world/2007/jun/03/russia.vivgroskop "Marina Litvinenko"], ''The Observer'', 3 June 2007</ref> and [[Beslan school hostage crisis]] survivor Fatima Dzgoeva.<ref>Viv Groskop [https://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/aug/08/beslan-siege-five-years-on "The Beslan siege five years on"], ''The Guardian'', 8 August 2009</ref> She has also conducted interviews in French, including one with the surviving daughter of ''[[Suite française (Irène Némirovsky)|Suite Francaise]]'' author [[Irène Némirovsky]].<ref>[http://www.theage.com.au/news/books/a-masterpiece-from-historys-suitcase/2006/03/02/1141191791456.html "A masterpiece from history's suitcase"], ''The Age'', 4 March 2006.</ref>▼

Groskop's documentaries for [[BBC Radio 4]] include ''It's Just a Joke Comrade'' on Russian satire,<ref>''[http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b097zv5d It's Just a Joke Comrade]''</ref> and ''L'origine de L'Origine du monde'' on [[L'Origine du monde|the painting]] by [[Gustave Courbet]].<ref>''[http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07pj824 L'origine de L'Origine du monde]''</ref> She was a studio guest in the first TV edition of the BBC arts show ''[[Front Row (radio programme)|Front Row]]''.<ref>''[http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b096p47b Front Row]''</ref><ref>{{cite web|author=Ed Power |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/tv/0/front-row-struggles-make-leap-radio-4-tv-review/ |title=Front Row struggles to make the leap from Radio 4 to TV – review |publisher=Daily Telegraph |date=2017-09-24 |accessdate=2018-03-09}}</ref> She appears occasionally on the Radio 4 programme ''[[Saturday Live (radio series)|Saturday Live]]'',<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b02xxvbt |title=BBC Radio 4 – Saturday Live, Viv Groskop's comedy marathon; Paul Nicholas's Inheritance Tracks |publisher=Bbc.co.uk |date=2013-06-22 |accessdate=2018-03-09}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04xjcmw |title=BBC Radio 4 – Saturday Live, Viv Groskop and Paul Sinton-Hewitt |publisher=Bbc.co.uk |date=2015-01-10 |accessdate=2018-03-09}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b096gk2f |title=BBC Radio 4 – Saturday Live, Gloria Hunniford |publisher=Bbc.co.uk |date=2017-10-07 |accessdate=2018-03-09}}</ref> [[Sky News]], Radio 4's ''[[Today (BBC Radio 4)|Today]]'' programme,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_8243000/8243211.stm |title=BBC – Today: Tuesday 8 September 2009 |publisher=BBC News |date=2009-09-08 |accessdate=2018-03-09}}</ref> ''[[Any Questions]]'', ''[[Front Row (radio programme)|Front Row]]'',<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01n9yfx |title=BBC Radio 4 – Front Row, Tim Burton's Frankenweenie, David Walliams, US TV series Girls |publisher=Bbc.co.uk |date=2012-10-15 |accessdate=2018-03-09}}</ref> and ''[[Woman's Hour]]'',<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/womanshour/03/2009_39_thu.shtml |title=Radio 4 Woman's Hour – Pre-school clothes and gender |publisher=BBC |date= |accessdate=2018-03-09}}</ref> and on [[Nick Ferrari]]'s [[LBC 97.3]] programme. She blogged about ''[[Downton Abbey]]'' and [[Poldark (2015 TV series)|''Poldark'']] for ''The Guardian''.<ref>Viv Groskop, [https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/tvandradioblog/2012/sep/16/downton-abbey-series-three-episode-one "Downton Abbey: series three, episode one"], ''The Guardian'', 16 September 2012.</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/series/poldark--episode-by-episode|title=Poldark: episode by episode {{!}} Television & radio|website=the Guardian|access-date=2016-10-05}}</ref>▼

Her first book, ''I Laughed, I Cried'', is an account of Groskop performing one hundred comedy gigs in one hundred nights. It is described as "an experiment in doing what you want, even if it is terrifying, without giving up the day job". It was published by Orion on 27 June 2013.<ref>[http://www.orionbooks.co.uk/books/detail.page?isbn=9781409127840 "I Laughed, I Cried" page] at Orion Publishing.</ref> Her latest book, ''The Anna Karenina Fix, Life Lessons From Russian Literature'', was published by Penguin on 5 October 2017.<ref>{{cite web|author=Viv Groskop |url=https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/305457/the-anna-karenina-fix/ |title=The Anna Karenina Fix, Life Lessons from Russian Literature |publisher=Penguin.co.uk |date= |accessdate=2018-03-09}}</ref>▼

Groskop was the Artistic Director of the [[Bath Literature Festival]], the first season under her charge being held in February 2014,<ref>Katie Jarvis, [http://www.cotswoldlife.co.uk/people/celebrity-interviews/viv_groskop_and_the_bath_literature_festival_1_3339857 "Viv Groskop and the Bath Literature Festival"], ''Cotswold Life'', 18 February 2014.</ref> and the last in 2016 when "the much-loved chief was waved off with a raucous party".<ref>{{cite web|author=Nick Clark |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/the-independent-bath-literature-festival-from-a-dark-take-on-little-house-on-the-prairie-to-a-lively-a6917476.html#r3z-addoor |title=Bath Literature Festival: From a dark take on 'Little House on the Prairie' to a lively Brexit discussion |publisher=The Independent |date=2016-03-07 |accessdate=2018-03-09}}</ref>▼