Sigolène Vinson Explained

Sigolène Vinson (born 1974) is a former lawyer and actress who became a novelist and journalist. She is the legal correspondent of Charlie Hebdo, where she survived the shooting on 7 January 2015.[1]

Life

Vinson was born at Sainte-Foy-lès-Lyon. Her family moved shortly afterwards to Clamart and then Meudon near Paris, before leaving for Djibouti because of her father's job in 1981. She returned to France in 1987. She studied for the stage but later retrained at the Sorbonne to become a lawyer.[1]

In 2007 she gave up the law to become a writer. In the same year she was awarded jointly with Philippe Kleinmann the Prix du roman d'aventures for their crime novel Bistouri Blues, the first appearance of the commissaire Cush Dibbeth, who reappeared in Substance (2015). In 2011 they co-wrote an historical crime novel, Double Hélice. In the same year Vinson's solo novel J'ai déserté le pays de l’enfance was also published.[1]

Since September 2012 she has written a legal column for Charlie Hebdo.[1] During the shooting on 7 January 2015 her life was spared by Saïd Kouachi, because she was a woman, on condition that she read the Quran.[2]

Works

Novels

In collaboration with Philippe Kleinmann

Contributions to works of multiple authorship

External links

Notes and References

  1. Sophie Adriansen, « Sigolène Vinson – Écrivain », encore-magazine.fr, 11 October 2014
  2. N’aie pas peur. Calme-toi. Je ne te tuerai pas. Tu es une femme. On ne tue pas les femmes. Mais réfléchis à ce que tu fais. Ce que tu fais est mal. Je t’épargne, et puisque je t’épargne, tu liras le Coran. Soren Seelow, « "C'est Charlie, venez vite, ils sont tous morts" », Le Monde, 13 January 2015. Chérif Kouachi however killed another female journalist, Elsa Cayat.