Hitchens, Christopher (1949– )

English journalist, writer, and critic. He is well known in both the USA and the UK for his controversial and acerbic commentaries, and for his changeable political views.

He is a contributor to a variety of magazines and newspapers, including Vanity Fair, The Nation, Salon, The Atlantic Monthly, The Times Literary Supplement, and The Washington Post. He has written books denouncing, among others, Roman Catholic nun Mother Teresa and former US president Bill Clinton. Though at one time regarded as a liberal, he has distanced himself from the political left in his book A Long Short War: The Postponed Liberation of Iraq (2003) in defense of the invasion of Iraq.

He graduated from Oxford University, England, in 1970, after which he worked as a writer for the New Statesman, Evening Standard, and Daily Express in London. During the 1980s he worked in the USA, as the Washington editor for Harper's, the US correspondent for The Spectator and The Times Literary Supplement, and literary critic for Newsday.