''New Humanist'' is a quarterly magazine, published by

Humanists UK Humanists UK, known from 1967 until May 2017 as the British Humanist Association (BHA), is a charitable organisation which promotes secular humanism and aims to represent Irreligion in the United Kingdom, non-religious people in the UK throug ...

and based in London, that focuses on culture, news,

philosophy Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

, and

science Science is a systematic discipline that builds and organises knowledge in the form of testable hypotheses and predictions about the universe. Modern science is typically divided into twoor threemajor branches: the natural sciences, which stu ...

from a

sceptical Skepticism ( US) or scepticism ( UK) is a questioning attitude or doubt toward knowledge claims that are seen as mere belief or dogma. For example, if a person is skeptical about claims made by their government about an ongoing war then the pe ...

perspective.

History

''New Humanist'' has been in print for years, starting out life as ''Watts's Literary Guide'', founded by

C. A. Watts Charles Albert Watts (27 May 1858 – 15 May 1946) was an English secularist editor and publisher. He founded the journal ''Watts's Literary Guide'', which later became the ''New Humanist'' magazine, and the Rationalist Press Association. ...

in November 1885. It later became ''The Literary Guide and Rationalist Review'' (1894–1954), ''Humanist'' (1956–1971) and ''New Humanist'' in 1972. Notable columnists, past and present, include Laurie Taylor,

Simon Hoggart Simon David Hoggart (26 May 1946 – 5 January 2014) was an English journalist and broadcaster. He wrote on politics for ''The Guardian'', and on wine for ''The Spectator''. Until 2006, he presented '' The News Quiz'' on BBC Radio 4. His journa ...

, Sally Feldman, Shaparak Khorsandi,

Samira Ahmed Samira Ahmed (born 15 June 1968) is a British journalist, writer and broadcaster at the BBC, where she presents '' Front Row'' on Radio 4 and '' Newswatch'' on the BBC News channel and BBC One during '' BBC Breakfast'', and regularly present ...

Marcus Chown Marcus Chown (born 1959) is a science writer, journalist and broadcaster, currently cosmology consultant for ''New Scientist'' magazine. Biography He graduated from the Queen Mary University of London in 1980 with a Bachelor of Science in physics ...

and

Michael Rosen Michael Wayne Rosen (born 7 May 1946) is an English children's author, poet, presenter, political columnist, broadcaster, activist, and academic, who is a professor of children's literature in the Department of Educational Studies at Goldsmiths ...

Jim Herrick Jim Herrick (August 1944 – 20 June 2023) was a British humanist and secularist. He studied history and English literature at Trinity College, Cambridge University, and then worked as a school teacher for seven years. He wrote or edited sever ...

was editor of ''New Humanist'' from 1984 until 2002, and subsequently became the journal's literary editor until his retirement in 2005. From 2002 until 2005 the magazine's editor was Frank Jordans. In 2005 Caspar Melville took over as managing editor of the magazine and CEO of the

Rationalist Association The Rationalist Association was a charity in the United Kingdom which published '' New Humanist'' magazine between 1885 and 2025. Since 2025, the Rationalist Press has been the publishing imprint of Humanists UK. The original Rationalist Press ...

Daniel Trilling Daniel Trilling is a British journalist, editor and author. He was the editor of ''New Humanist'' magazine from 2013 to 2019. He writes about migration, nationalism and human rights and is the author of ''Lights in the Distance: exile and refuge ...

assumed the position of editor in 2013. Samira Shackle was editor from spring 2020 to spring 2023. Niki Seth-Smith is the current Editor. ''New Humanist'' was shortlisted for the

Foreign Press Association The Foreign Press Association (FPA) is a not-for-profit Friendly Society established in 1888, at the time of the Jack the Ripper murders. It organises press briefings and events at central locations in London and coordinates and facilitates the wor ...

awards in 2023 and won the Piazza Grande Religion Journalism Award in 2023 and 2024. In January 2025, the Rationalist Association, which had published the magazine for its first 139 years, merged with

. In May that year, Humanists UK announced it had appointed Ian Dunt to chair the magazine's new editorial board.

External links

The Literary Guide and Rationalist Review
–

HathiTrust HathiTrust Digital Library is a large-scale collaborative repository of digital content from research libraries. Its holdings include content digitized via Google Books and the Internet Archive digitization initiatives, as well as content digit ...

{{Skeptical magazines Freethought Humanist literature Magazines established in 1885 1885 establishments in the United Kingdom Philosophy magazines Political magazines published in the United Kingdom Quarterly magazines published in the United Kingdom Magazines published in London Scientific skepticism mass media