About

Victoria Scott is a British journalist and author with more than 20 years’ experience working for online, print, TV and radio outlets around the world.

She lives on a Thames island with her husband and two children and a cat called Alice, and when she’s not writing novels she’s a university lecturer, freelance journalist and copywriter.

Victoria Scott’s first novel, Patience, was the Booksellers Association Book of the Month and LoveReading Debut of the Month.

She is represented by Northbank Talent Management.

Her debut novel Patience was published in 2021 by Head of Zeus, and will be published in German translation in 2022 by Droemer Knaur.

Her second novel, Grace, will be published by Head of Zeus on July 7th 2022.

You can buy her books online here.

She has worked for a wide range of well-known outlets, including Al Jazeera, the BBC and CNN, and radio stations BBC 5 Live, BBC Radio 4, QF Radio andMonocle 24 ; British newspapers The Telegraph (for whom she was a regular columnist and blogger) and The Independent; websites The New Arab, Doha News and Mandarin Oriental; magazines Good Housekeeping Middle East, Scientific American,  Time Out Doha, Oryx In-Flight Premium (the Qatar Airways in-flight magazine), New York Times Style Qatar, women’s magazine Abode, events magazine Qatar Happening, as well as writing and editing the travel section of Qatari business magazine The EDGE.

Victoria’s copywriting clients include the charity Compassion UK, the management training company Inez, the hotel chain Mandarin Oriental and the events company Coliseum.

Before moving to Qatar in 2009 she was a broadcast journalist in London for 9 years. Her career began at Reuters, where she was a radio newsreader. Next, she moved to the BBC News website, as a producer for its audio and video section. Here, she won the BBC News website’s original journalism prize. Three years later, she moved into TV at the BBC News Channel and the BBC One o’Clock national news for several years, before moving on to her final post at the BBC – as Transport Producer, working with Transport Correspondent Tom Symonds, researching and producing specialist news pieces for the whole BBC network.

Victoria’s areas of specialist knowledge are Qatar, travel, transport (particularly aviation) food, health, education and kids.

She has a PG Dip in Broadcast Journalism from City University, London and a degree in English Language and Literature from King’s College, London.

Here’s what some of Victoria’s former colleagues say about her:

Shabina Khatri, founding editor of Doha News

“I first met Tory in 2012 when I hired her as an assistant editor at Doha News, a digital news
publication in Qatar that I co-founded to help fill a void in quality journalism in the country.

Tory’s keen news judgement, quick turnaround and ability to push boundaries helped make our
website famous in a country with no press freedom. During her tenure, we grew our audience to
1 million unique visitors a month.

Her reporting on working conditions at Qatar Airways, Doha’s burgeoning art scene and the
flailing education system are all laudable.

But it was her series on low-income women jailed for becoming pregnant out of wedlock that
particularly stood out.  By shedding light on this issue, Tory was able to help a young woman and
her child who spent years trapped in a Doha prison connect with a pro bono lawyer and return to
her family in the Philippines. This is just one example of how Tory fought to uphold transparency and accountability through
her journalism, but there are many others.

Her high standards, digital savviness, ability to meet tight deadlines and her knack for connecting with interviewees of all walks of life make her a
valuable asset to any team.”

Maxine Mawhinney, BBC TV News presenter and journalist

“Victoria is a great journalist and great colleague. She is hard working, enthusiastic and extremely professional. She was a great loss to us when she left the BBC newsroom in London. I would highly recommend her.”

Kate Silverton, television presenter and journalist

“I worked with Tory for several years, at both the BBC News Channel and the BBC One O’clock News.  She has excellent news judgement, writes well and produces great research briefs, a skill presenters value very highly. I always knew I could depend on her.”