In this photo provided by the Greek Prime Minister's Office, Greece's Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, left, meets the popular British author Victoria Hislop at Maximos Mansion in Athens, on Thursday, Sept. 17, 2020. Hislop has been granted honorary Greek citizenship and met with the prime minister of Greece. Hislop has used Greece as the setting for several of her historical novels. In her first book, The Island, published in 2005, the action takes place near the Greek island of Crete. Her most recent, Those Who Are Loved, is set in Athens and other Greek islands. (Dimitris Papamitsos/Greek Prime Minister's Office via AP)In this photo provided by the Greek Prime Minister's Office, Greece's Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, left, speaks with the popular British author Victoria Hislop at Maximos Mansion in Athens, Thursday, Sept. 17, 2020. Hislop has been granted honorary Greek citizenship and met with the prime minister of Greece. Hislop has used Greece as the setting for several of her historical novels. In her first book, The Island, published in 2005, the action takes place near the Greek island of Crete. Her most recent, Those Who Are Loved, is set in Athens and other Greek islands. (Dimitris Papamitsos/Greek Prime Minister's Office via AP)In this photo provided by the Greek Prime Minister's Office, Greece's Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, left, speaks with the popular British author Victoria Hislop at Maximos Mansion in Athens, Thursday, Sept. 17, 2020. Hislop has been granted honorary Greek citizenship and met with the prime minister of Greece. Hislop has used Greece as the setting for several of her historical novels. In her first book, The Island, published in 2005, the action takes place near the Greek island of Crete. Her most recent, Those Who Are Loved, is set in Athens and other Greek islands. (Dimitris Papamitsos/Greek Prime Minister's Office via AP)
In this photo provided by the Greek Prime Minister's Office, Greece's Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, left, meets the popular British author Victoria Hislop at Maximos Mansion in Athens, on Thursday, Sept. 17, 2020. Hislop has been granted honorary Greek citizenship and met with the prime minister of Greece. Hislop has used Greece as the setting for several of her historical novels. In her first book, The Island, published in 2005, the action takes place near the Greek island of Crete. Her most recent, Those Who Are Loved, is set in Athens and other Greek islands. (Dimitris Papamitsos/Greek Prime Minister's Office via AP)
ATHENS – British author Victoria Hislop was granted honorary Greek citizenship Thursday and met with the prime minister of Greece.
Hislop has used Greece as the setting for several of her novels. In her first book, “The Island,” published in 2005, the action takes place near the Greek island of Crete, where she has a holiday home. Her most recent, “Those Who Are Loved,” is set in Athens and on Greek islands.
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Honorary Greek citizenship may be granted in recognition of an individual's special contribution to the country. Actor Tom Hanks and his wife, actor and producer Rita Wilson, were given the honor last year for their support in raising money for victims of a deadly Greek wildfire. The couple received Greek passports this year.
Hislop, 61, was officially sworn in as a Greek citizen in Athens on Thursday. She said she was honored by the gesture.
“I love Greece with all its problems and difficulties, not just because it’s a beautiful country,” she said at her meeting with Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.
Hislop said she had already framed a copy of her naturalization certificate that was sent to her home in England.
“That’s already up on my wall,” she said. “But now I have the original.”
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