Born in Bromley, Kent (now part of London), she was raised in Tonbridge, Kent, and attended Tonbridge Grammar School. She studied English at St Hilda's College, Oxford, and worked in publishing and as a journalist before becoming an author.

The then Victoria Hamson married Private Eye editor Ian Hislop on 16 April 1988 in Oxford; the couple have two children, Emily Helen (born 1990) and William David (born 1993).