I spent most of my childhood living in Putney, London.
My father, Peter Zinovieff, had an electronic music studio (EMS). Visitors to the house during the 1960s and ‘70s included composers and musicians as diverse as Harrison Birtwistle and Pink Floyd.
Both my paternal grandparents were from St Petersburg and escaped to England after the 1917 revolution. I was named after my Russian grandmother, the subject of Red Princess: A Revolutionary Life.
After attending schools in London and Oxford, I studied social anthropology at Cambridge and carried out research for my PhD in Greece. This marked the beginning of a lifelong involvement with the country.
Later, I lived in Moscow and Rome, where I worked as a freelance journalist and reviewer.
I have written six books, the latest of which is Stealing Dad (2025): ‘A first-class novel starring a dysfunctional family like no other.’ (The Telegraph)
Putney (2018): ‘Lolita in reverse: a novel for the #MeToo age which addresses the minefield of sexual consent.’
In addition to one other novel, The House on Paradise Street (2012) about an Athenian family divided by civil war and the contemporary crisis, I have written three works of non-fiction:
Eurydice Street: A Place in Athens (2004)
Red Princess: A Revolutionary Life (2007)
The Mad Boy, Lord Berners, My Grandmother and Me (2014)
In 2021 I made an eight-part documentary podcast series about Athens –
Athens Unpacked https://lnkfi.re/athensunpacked
© Thomas Gravanis
I am chair of the judges for the Runciman Award, a literary prize awarded by the Anglo-Hellenic League for the best book about or related to Greece published in the last year.
https://www.anglohellenicleague.org/runciman-award
My writing has appeared in publications including the Daily Telegraph, the Financial Times, The Times Literary Supplement, the Spectator and the Independent.
I am married, have two daughters and I live in Athens.
