Peter Hitchens

Peter Hitchens, an English author, journalist, and commentator won the Orwell Prize for political journalism in 2010 where one of the judges described his writing as "as firm, polished and potentially lethal as a Guardsman's boot." Born in Malta where his father was a commander in the Royal navy, Peter later become a distinguished journalist, starting as a reporter before writing for major British publications such as the Daily Express. In contrast, his older brother Christopher Hitchens, gained notoriety as outspoken atheist and a member of the infamous "Four Horsemen" of New Atheism. Although Peter was raised Anglican and attended Christian schools, he abandoned his faith at age 15 to eventually embrace atheism. However, in later years, he underwent a profound spiritual transformation, influenced by his reflections on societal moral decay and his personal encounter with religious art, in particular Rogier van der Weyden’s painting The Last Judgment. Today, Peter is a practicing Christian and member of the Church of England. Reflecting on his personal transformation, he remarked: "I wanted to live a life of complete liberty from restraint, where I chose what I did and nobody else chose it for me." Thru his observations of the moral decay of society, he came to recognize the importance of Christianity when he stated: "Only one reliable force restrains the hand of the man of power. And, in an age of power-worship, the Christian religion has become the principal obstacle to the desire of earthly utopians for absolute power."