“You don’t so much as become an atheist as find out that’s what you are. There’s no moment of conversion. You don’t suddenly think ‘I don’t believe this anymore.’ You essentially find you don’t believe it.”

British journalist and polemicist of the late 20th and early 21st centuries, he was renowned for his sharp, provocative essays on politics, literature, and culture. His work blended rigorous analysis with a combative wit, often challenging ideological dogma and defending free speech and secularism.