Damian Thompson (born 1962) is an English journalist, editor and author. He is an associate editor of ''

The Spectator ''The Spectator'' is a weekly British political and cultural news magazine. It was first published in July 1828, making it the oldest surviving magazine in the world. ''The Spectator'' is politically conservative, and its principal subject a ...

''. Previously he worked as editor-in-chief of the ''

Catholic Herald The ''Catholic Herald'' is a London-based Roman Catholic monthly magazine, founded in 1888 and a sister organisation to the non-profit Catholic Herald Institute, based in New York. After 126 years as a weekly newspaper, it became a magazine ...

'' and for ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a British daily broadsheet conservative newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed in the United Kingdom and internationally. It was found ...

'' where he was religious affairs correspondent and later blogs editor and a Saturday columnist.

Career

Thompson was educated at Presentation College, Reading (later known as the Elvian School), and read history at

Mansfield College, Oxford Mansfield College, Oxford is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in Oxford, England. The college was founded in Birmingham in 1838 as a college for Nonconformist students. It moved to Oxford in 1886 and was renamed Mansfield Coll ...

. In 2003, he received his Ph.D. in the sociology of religion from the

London School of Economics The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), established in 1895, is a public research university in London, England, and a member institution of the University of London. The school specialises in the social sciences. Founded ...

for his thesis, ''The problem of the end: a sociological study of the management of apocalyptic belief at Kensington Temple, a London Pentecostal church, at the end of the millennium''. He was religious affairs correspondent of ''

'' from 1990 to 1994, and subsequently editor-in chief of the ''

.'' He was a director of the ''Herald'' from 2003 to 2019. Thompson was a Saturday columnist for ''

'' from 2011, and the Blogs Editor of the

Telegraph Media Group Telegraph Media Group Limited (TMG; previously the Telegraph Group) owns ''The Daily Telegraph'' and '' The Sunday Telegraph'' and is a subsidiary of Press Holdings. David and Frederick Barclay acquired the group on 30 July 2004 from Hollinger I ...

, with responsibility for editing and commissioning blogs on politics, religion, finance and culture. In June 2014, he left his posts at ''The Telegraph''Roy Greenslad
"Daily Telegraph's Brogan departs as group seeks 40 new recruits"
(Greenslade blog) ''The Guardian'', 18 June 2014 "in entirely amicable circumstances".Jack Sommer

''The Huffington Post'', 18 June 2014 On 5 August 2014, ''

'' announced that Thompson had been appointed associate editor. He has written two books about apocalyptic belief and one about

conspiracy theories A conspiracy theory is an explanation for an event or situation that asserts the existence of a conspiracy (generally by powerful sinister groups, often political in motivation), when other explanations are more probable.Additional sources: * ...

or "counterknowledge", which he describes as "misinformation packaged to look like fact". His book '' The Fix: How Addiction is Invading our Lives and Taking Over Your World'' was published in 2012. He writes a monthly column about classical music for ''

''. He also regularly writes a column on ''

UnHerd ''UnHerd'' is a British news and opinion website founded in July 2017 which describes itself as a platform for slow journalism. History ''UnHerd'' was founded in 2017 by the hedge fund manager Paul Marshall as its owner and publisher and co ...

''.

Books

*''The End of Time: Faith and the Fear in the Shadow of the Millennium'' (University Press of New England, 1997); *''Loose Canon: A Portrait of Brian Brindley'' (ed) (Continuum, 2004); *''Waiting for Antichrist: Charisma and Apocalypse in a Pentecostal Church'' (Oxford University Press, 2005); *'' Counterknowledge: How We Surrendered to Conspiracy Theories, Quack Medicine, Bogus Science and Fake History'' (Atlantic Books, 2008); *'' The Fix: How Addiction is Invading our Lives and Taking Over Your World'' (Collins, 2012);

References

External links

Damian Thompson – ''The Telegraph''Damian Thompson – ''The Spectator''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Thompson, Damian 1962 births Living people Alumni of Mansfield College, Oxford Alumni of the London School of Economics The Daily Telegraph people Editors of Catholic publications English bloggers English political writers English journalists English Roman Catholics Online journalists People educated at Elvian School Place of birth missing (living people) Religion journalists English male bloggers