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Vanora Bennett

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I became a journalist almost by accident. Having learned Russian and been hired after university by Reuters (to my own surprise and the slight dismay of traditionally-minded editors who weren’t sure a Guardian-reading blonde female would be tough enough for the job), I was then catapulted into the adrenaline-charged realm of conflict reporting. While on a trainee assignment in Paris, I fell in with the Cambodian émigré community and ended up reporting in Cambodia myself, a decade after the Khmer Rouge regime ended, as well as covering Cambodian peace talks in places as far apart as Indonesia and Paris. That led to a conflict reporting job in Africa, commuting between Angola and Mozambique and writing about death, destruction, diamonds and d I became a journalist almost by accident. Having learned Russian and been hired after university by Reuters (to my own surprise and the slight dismay of traditionally-minded editors who weren’t sure a Guardian-reading blonde female would be tough enough for the job), I was then catapulted into the adrenaline-charged realm of conflict reporting. While on a trainee assignment in Paris, I fell in with the Cambodian émigré community and ended up reporting in Cambodia myself, a decade after the Khmer Rouge regime ended, as well as covering Cambodian peace talks in places as far apart as Indonesia and Paris. That led to a conflict reporting job in Africa, commuting between Angola and Mozambique and writing about death, destruction, diamonds and disease, and later to a posting in a country that stopped being the Soviet Union three months after I arrived. I spent much of the early 1990s in smoky taxis in the Caucasus mountains, covering a series of small post-Soviet conflicts that built up to the war in Chechnya.

My fascination with the cultural and religious differences between Russians and the many peoples once ruled by Moscow grew into a book on the Chechen war (Crying Wolf: The Return of War to Chechnya). A second, more light-hearted book followed, about post-Soviet Russia’s illegal caviar trade, once I’d got homesick for London and moved back to writer leaders on foreign affairs for The Times. This book was The Taste of Dreams: An Obsession with Russia and Caviar.

I now lead a more sedate life in North London with my husband and two small sons, enjoying the reading, research, writing and metropolitan leisure activities that I grew up expecting adult life to involve. I’ve found that writing books is much of a surprise, a pleasure and an adventure of the mind as it was to become a foreign correspondent.

As a journalist I’ve written for, among others, The Times and its website, TimesOnline, the Los Angeles Times, Prospect, The Times Literary Supplement, the Guardian Saturday magazine, the Daily Mail, the Evening Standard, Eve magazine, The Observer Food Monthlyand The Erotic Review. ...more

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Vanora Bennett’s books

Average rating: 3.58 · 11,395 ratings · 1,268 reviews · 18 distinct works • Similar authors

	Portrait of an Unknown Woman 3.67 avg rating — 4,523 ratings — published 2006 — 50 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Figures in Silk 3.64 avg rating — 2,061 ratings — published 2008 — 42 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Blood Royal 3.64 avg rating — 1,424 ratings — published 2009 — 23 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Midnight in St. Petersburg 3.38 avg rating — 914 ratings — published 2013 — 16 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The People's Queen 3.49 avg rating — 829 ratings — published 2010 — 13 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The White Russian 3.15 avg rating — 590 ratings — published 2014 — 13 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Taste of Dreams: An Obsession with Russia and Caviar 3.65 avg rating — 51 ratings — published 2003 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Crying Wolf: The Return of War to Chechnya 4.09 avg rating — 22 ratings — published 1998 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Figures in Silk it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 1 rating	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Queen's Lover: A Novel 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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Leos Janacek KATYA KABANOVA Opera Study Guide with Libretto: Opera Classics Library

by Burton D. Fisher

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May 08, 2021 06:57AM

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Human Rights: Questions and Answers

by Leah Levin

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Vanora Bennett said: " Clear, concise and admirable. "

Nov 01, 2020 02:00AM · see review

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At Swim-Two-Birds

by Flann O'Brien

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Jul 04, 2018 11:59AM

Quotes by Vanora Bennett (?)

“Beautifully wrought and executed with admirable clarity, Lawrence Sheets’s gripping, intelligent, and compassionate account of the years following the Soviet empire’s end is a must-read for anyone interested in the human cost of change.”
― Vanora Bennett

2 likes

“Truth is the old way. Truth dates back to the time when your word was your bond, and you didn't need papers in a language you couldn't understand to compel you to act honestly.”
― Vanora Bennett, The People's Queen

tags: honesty, truth

1 likes

“There's blood pounding through the Duke's head.
Knighthood is glory, he's thinking, not just grace in the saddle and at swordplay, but courage enough to give your life to defend what you hold dear. A noble reward, for noble men. A badge of honour.
He'd never ennoble a merchant. Even Chaucer, whom he admires, but knows to be a fool on a battlefield. Not Chaucer's fault, that; just his merchant blood.
Knighthood's not for the likes of these people; for Madame Perrers' brood. He thought she knew her place. But she's overreached herself; she's as grasping as the rest of them, after all. Do these people think they can buy or steal everything?”
― Vanora Bennett, The People's Queen

tags: pride

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Polls

What book about the Tudors or the Tudor world would you like to have as our Group Read in October 2020?

Elizabeth: The Struggle for the Throne by David Starkey

11 votes, 19.6%

Portrait of an Unknown Woman by Vanora Bennett

10 votes, 17.9%

Uncrowned Queen: The Fateful Life of Margaret Beaufort, Tudor Matriarch by Nicola Tallis

10 votes, 17.9%

Bess of Hardwick: First Lady of Chatsworth, 1527-1608 by Mary S. Lovell

6 votes, 10.7%

The White Rose Murders by Paul Doherty

6 votes, 10.7%

Graven With Diamonds: The Many Lives of Thomas Wyatt. Courtier, Poet, Assassin, Spy by Nicola Shulman

5 votes, 8.9%

To Hold the Crown by Jean Plaidy

3 votes, 5.4%

The King's Pleasure by Norah Lofts

2 votes, 3.6%

The Last Armada: Queen Elizabeth, Juan del Águila, and Hugh O'Neill: The Story of the 100-Day Spanish Invasion by Des Ekin

2 votes, 3.6%

Sir John Hawkins: Queen Elizabeth’s Slave Trader by Harry Kelsey

1 vote, 1.8%

The Spanish Armada by Robert Hutchinson

0 votes, 0.0%

56 total votes

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