Damian Thompson (born 1962) is an English journalist, editor and author. He is an associate editor of The Spectator. Previously he worked as editor-in-chief of the Catholic Herald and for The Daily Telegraph 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.
In 2003, he received his Ph.D. in the sociology of religion from the London School of Economics 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 The Daily Telegraph from 1990 to 1994, and subsequently editor-in chief of the Catholic Herald. He was a director of the Herald from 2003 to 2019.
Thompson was a Saturday columnist for The Daily Telegraph from 2011, and the Blogs Editor of the Telegraph Media Group, with responsibility for editing and commissioning blogs on politics, religion, finance and culture. In June 2014, he left his posts at The TelegraphRoy Greenslade "Daily Telegraph's Brogan departs as group seeks 40 new recruits", (Greenslade blog) The Guardian, 18 June 2014 "in entirely amicable circumstances".Jack Sommers "Telegraph Cuts High-Profile Journalists Benedict Brogan And Damian Thompson In Latest Cull", The Huffington Post, 18 June 2014 On 5 August 2014, The Spectator announced that Thompson had been appointed associate editor.Fraser Nelson "Changes to The Spectator’s editorial team" , The Spectator (blog), 5 August 2014
He has written two books about apocalyptic belief and one about conspiracy theories or "counterknowledge", which he describes as "misinformation packaged to look like fact".Lies, damn lies and 'counterknowledge', The Daily Telegraph, 12 January 2008. His book The Fix: How Addiction is Invading our Lives and Taking Over Your World was published in 2012.Thompson, Damian (22 February 2012). "Are sleeping pills really that bad for your health?". The Daily Telegraph He writes a monthly column about classical music for The Spectator. He also regularly writes a column on UnHerd.
Books The End of Time: Faith and the Fear in the Shadow of the Millennium (University Press of New England, 1997);Eisner, Robert (9 November 1997)."The Big Round One". The New York Times. 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