Andrew Brown (writer)

Andrew Brown (born 1955 in London) is a British journalist, writer, and editor. He was one of the founding staff members of The Independent, where he worked as religious correspondent, parliamentary sketch writer, and a feature writer.He has written extensively on technology for Prospect and the New Statesman and been a feature writer on the Guardian. He has worked as the editor for the Belief section of the The Guardian's Comment is Free which won a Webby under his leadershipand is currently a leader writer and member of the paper's editorial board. He is also the press columnist of the Church Times. In The Beginning was the Worm (2004) was shortlisted for the Aventis Prize. Fishing in Utopia (2008) won the Orwell Prize and was nominated for the Dolman Best Travel Book Award in 2009.

Emglish Wikipedia

Andrew Brown fears English Wikipedia has outcompeted rival encyclopedias and problems that lead to criticism of Wikipedia will continue. Brown fears "charlatans and liars" have most to gain from editing Wikipedia and potential idealistic contributors are discouraged due to difficulties editing the site especially through smartphones.

New Atheism

Brown has been a fierce critic of the New Atheists. He has attacked Sam Harris for his advocacy of torture, and Richard Dawkins for the cult of personality that has grown around him. He is sceptical of the concept of memes.

Christianity

Brown has described himself as someone for whom "Christianity is only true backwards." He has written that he is "constantly astonished by the way in which the Church of England contains such a large number of clever, learned and dedicated people giving their lives to an institution that is none of those things."

• 1994 "John Templeton European Religion Writer of the Year"
• 2004 Aventis Prize for In The Beginning was the Worm, nominated
• 2009 Dolman Best Travel Book Award for Fishing in Utopia, nominated
• 2009 Orwell Prize for Fishing in Utopia, won

• "Journalist receives first European Religion award". Christian Science Monitor. October 2, 1995. Retrieved 27 April 2013. 
• "Record entries for science prize". BBC. Retrieved 27 April 2013. 
• "Debut book wins Dolman Travel Book award". Telegraph. Retrieved 27 April 2013. 
• "Orwell Prize 2009". Granta. Retrieved 27 April 2013. 
• "Sverigeskildring fick Orwellpris". Svenska Dagbladet. Retrieved 27 April 2013.