Victoria Coren Mitchell
Victoria Elizabeth Coren Mitchell (born Victoria Elizabeth Coren, 18 August 1972) is an English writer, presenter and professional poker player. Coren Mitchell writes weekly columns for The Observer and The Guardian and has hosted the BBC television quiz show Only Connect since 2008.
Early life
Coren was born in Hammersmith, west London, and grew up in Cricklewood, north London, the daughter of the humorist and journalist Alan Coren and his wife Dr Anne Kasriel. Her brother is the journalist Giles Coren. She attended girls' independent schools between the ages of five and eighteen and read English at St John's College, Oxford, graduating with a first-class degree.
Writing
When aged 14 she had a short story published under a pseudonym in Just Seventeen magazine and then won a competition in The Daily Telegraph to write a column about teenage life for their "Weekend" section, which she continued writing for several years.
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 led them to believe that most of what they were watching was terrible and that they could make better films themselves.
