{"title":"Books by Christopher Hitchens","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"9781838952235","title":"Mortality","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA \u003ci\u003eSunday Times\u003c\/i\u003e Book of The Year\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eA \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eMail on Sunday\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e Book of The Year\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAn \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eIndependent\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e Book of The Year\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eA \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e Book of The Year\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDuring the US book tour for his memoir, \u003ci\u003eHitch-22\u003c\/i\u003e, Christopher Hitchens collapsed in his New York hotel room to excoriating pain in his chest and thorax. As he would later write in the first of a series of deeply moving \u003ci\u003eVanity Fair\u003c\/i\u003e pieces, he was being deported 'from the country of the well across the stark frontier that marks off the land of malady.' Over the next year he underwent the brutal gamut of modern cancer treatment, enduring catastrophic levels of suffering and eventually losing the ability to speak. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eMortality\u003c\/i\u003e is the most meditative collection of writing Hitchens has ever produced; at once an unsparingly honest account of the ravages of his disease, an examination of cancer etiquette, and the coda to a lifetime of fierce debate and peerless prose. In this eloquent confrontation with mortality, Hitchens returns a human face to a disease that has become a contemporary cipher of suffering.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43205550506162,"sku":"9781838952235","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781838952235.jpg?v=1786028265"},{"product_id":"9780465030507","title":"Why Orwell Matters","description":"\u003cb\u003eFrom the bestselling author and iconoclast Christopher Hitchens, a bracing reappraisal of George Orwell’s life and thought\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “Hitchens presents a George Orwell fit for the twenty-first century.”—\u003ci\u003eThe Boston Globe\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e In this widely acclaimed biographical essay, the masterful polemicist Christopher Hitchens assesses the life, the achievements, and the myth of the great political writer and participant George Orwell. True to his contrarian style, Hitchens is both admiring and aggressive, sympathetic yet critical, taking true measure of his subject as hero and problem. Answering both the detractors and the false claimants, Hitchens tears down the façade of sainthood erected by the hagiographers and rebuts the critics point by point. He examines Orwell and his perspectives on fascism, empire, feminism, and Englishness, as well as his outlook on America, a country and culture toward which he exhibited much ambivalence. Whether thinking about empires or dictators, race or class, nationalism or popular culture, Orwell's moral outlook remains indispensable in a world that has undergone vast changes in the seven decades since his death.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Combining the best of Hitchens' polemical punch and intellectual elegance in a tightly woven and subtle argument, this book addresses not only why Orwell matters today, but how he will continue to matter in a future, uncertain world.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56290552021365,"sku":"9780465030507","price":14.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780465030507_cd01ce04-9bc8-488b-aa82-85941c7f9372.jpg?v=1786013825"},{"product_id":"9780593080399","title":"The Four Horsemen","description":"\u003cp\u003eIncludes a foreword by STEPHEN FRY'A classic for our time...And all time.' - Michael Shermer'The words of Hitchens, Dawkins, Harris and Dennett are needed more than ever. These are the heirs to Voltaire.' - Matt RidleyKnown as the ‘four horsemen’ of New Atheism, these four big thinkers of the twenty-first century met only once. Their electrifying examination of ideas on this remarkable occasion was intense and wide-ranging. Everything that was said as they agreed and disagreed with one another, interrogated ideas and exchanged insights  – about religion and atheism, science and sense – speaks with urgency to our present age. Questions they asked of each other included: ‘Is it ever possible to win a war of ideas? Is spirituality the preserve of the religious? Are there any truths you would rather not know? Would you want to see the end of faith?’             The dialogue was recorded, and is now transcribed and presented here with new introductions from the surviving three horsemen. With a sparkling introduction from Stephen Fry, it makes essential reading for all their admirers and for anyone interested in exploring the tensions between faith and reason.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56293325963637,"sku":"9780593080399","price":16.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780593080399_89446e19-0f67-466d-8ec5-b16aab9237e0.jpg?v=1786015209"},{"product_id":"9781786633958","title":"The Parthenon Marbles","description":"\u003cb\u003eThe most powerful case yet made for the return of the Parthenon Marbles\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe Parthenon Marbles (formerly known as the Elgin Marbles), designed and executed by Pheidias to adorn the Parthenon, are perhaps the greatest of all classical sculptures. In 1801, Lord Elgin, then ambassador to the Turkish government, had chunks of the frieze sawn off and shipped to England, where they were subsequently seized by Parliament and sold to the British Museum to help pay off his debts.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis scandal, exacerbated by the inept handling of the sculptures by their self-appointed guardians, remains unresolved to this day. In his fierce, eloquent account of a shameful piece of British imperial history, Christopher Hitchens makes the moral, artistic, legal and political case for re-unifying the Parthenon frieze in Athens.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe opening of the New Acropolis Museum emphatically trumps the British Museum’s long-standing (if always questionable) objection that there is nowhere in Athens to house the Parthenon Marbles. With contributions by Nadine Gordimer and Professor Charalambos Bouras, \u003ci\u003eThe Parthenon Marbles\u003c\/i\u003e will surely end all arguments about where these great treasures belong, and help bring a two-centuries-old disgrace to a just conclusion.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56305078698357,"sku":"9781786633958","price":11.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781786633958_5af801bd-8646-4c97-a958-d979d2cfc847.jpg?v=1786025646"},{"product_id":"9781838952341","title":"Love, Poverty and War","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eLove, Poverty and War: Journeys and Essays\u003c\/i\u003e  showcases the Hitchens' rejection of consensus and  cliché, whether he's reporting from abroad in Indonesia, Kurdistan,  Iraq, North Korea, or Cuba, or when his pen is targeted mercilessly at  the likes of William Clinton, Mother Theresa (\"a fanatic, a  fundamentalist and a fraud\"), the Dalai Lama, Noam Chomsky, Mel Gibson  and Michael Bloomberg. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHitchens began the nineties as a \"darling of the  left\" but has become more of an \"unaffiliated radical\" whose targets  include those on the \"left,\" who he accuses of \"fudging\" the issue of  military intervention in the Balkans, Afghanistan and Iraq. Yet, as  Hitchens shows in his reportage, cultural and literary criticism, and  opinion essays from the last decade, he has not jumped ship and joined  the right but is faithful to the internationalist, contrarian and  democratic ideals that have always informed his work.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56307512967541,"sku":"9781838952341","price":14.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781838952341_1981f16a-7c8f-4e30-a765-8b699f66eed2.jpg?v=1786028277"},{"product_id":"9781838952334","title":"Hitch 22","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eNominated for the National Book Critics Circle Award\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn this long-awaited and candid memoir, Hitchens re-traces the  footsteps of his life to date, from his childhood in Portsmouth, with  his adoring, tragic mother and reserved Naval officer father; to his  life in Washington DC, the base from which from he would launch fierce  attacks on tyranny of all kinds. Along the way, he recalls the girls,  boys and booze; the friendships and the feuds; the grand struggles and  lost causes; and the mistakes and misgivings that have characterised his  life.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eHitch-22\u003c\/i\u003e is, by turns, moving and funny, charming and  infuriating, enraging and inspiring. It is an indispensable companion to  the life and thought of our pre-eminent political writer.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56307602391413,"sku":"9781838952334","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781838952334_72225cd9-5ede-43cd-a018-391736a1c33b.jpg?v=1786028276"},{"product_id":"9781838952280","title":"No One Left to Lie To","description":"\u003cp\u003eIn \u003ci\u003eNo One Left to Lie To\u003c\/i\u003e, Christopher Hitchens portrays President Bill Clinton as one of the most ideologically skewed and morally negligent politicians of recent times. In a blistering polemic which shows that Clinton was at once philanderer and philistine, crooked and corrupt, Hitchens challenges perceptions - of liberals and conservatives alike - of this highly divisive figure.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWith blistering wit and meticulous documentation, Hitchens masterfully deconstructs Clinton's abject propensity for pandering to the Left while delivering to the Right and argues that the president's personal transgressions were inseparable from his political corruption.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56307911459189,"sku":"9781838952280","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781838952280_d96c6d37-95a1-4c70-8043-f04e49c4bad4.jpg?v=1786028271"},{"product_id":"9781838952273","title":"God Is Not Great","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe bestselling cult classic\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cbr\u003egod Is Not Great \u003c\/i\u003eis the ultimate case against religion. In a series of acute readings of the major religious texts, Christopher Hitchens demonstrates the ways in which religion is man-made, dangerously sexually repressive and distorts the very origins of the cosmos. Above all, Hitchens argues that the concept of an omniscient God has profoundly damaged humanity, and proposes that the world might be a great deal better off without 'him'. In \u003ci\u003egod is Not Great\u003c\/i\u003e Hitchens turned his formidable eloquence and rhetorical energy to the most controversial issue in the world: God and religion. The result is a devastating critique of religious faith\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56307936723317,"sku":"9781838952273","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781838952273_0ed23d9d-0285-49dc-94e6-bf1422fb388d.jpg?v=1786028269"},{"product_id":"9781838952242","title":"The Missionary Position","description":"\u003cp\u003eIn this frank and damning exposé of the Teresa cult, Hitchens details the nature and limits of one woman's mission to help the world's poor. He probes the source of the heroic status bestowed upon an Albanian nun whose only declared wish was to serve God. He asks whether Mother Teresa's good works answered any higher purpose than the need of the world's privileged to see someone, somewhere, doing something for the Third World. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHe unmasks pseudo-miracles, questions Mother Teresa's fitness to adjudicate on matters of sex and reproduction, and reports on a version of saintly ubiquity which affords genial relations with dictators, corrupt tycoons and convicted frauds. Is Mother Teresa merely an essential salve to the conscience of the rich West, or an expert PR machine for the Catholic Church? In its caustic iconoclasm and unsparing wit, \u003ci\u003eThe Missionary Position\u003c\/i\u003e showcases the devastating effect of Hitchens' writing at its polemical best.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56307936854389,"sku":"9781838952242","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781838952242_764a0d3f-0011-425c-8ba6-952a194daf41.jpg?v=1786028267"},{"product_id":"9781838952266","title":"And Yet...","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA \u003ci\u003eSunday Times\u003c\/i\u003e bestseller\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eChristopher Hitchens was an unparalleled, prolific writer, who raised the polemical essay to a new art form, over a lifetime of thinking and debating the defining issues of our times. As an essayist he contributed to the \u003ci\u003eNew Statesman\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eAtlantic Monthly\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eLondon Review of Books\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eTLS \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eVanity Fair\u003c\/i\u003e. Any publication of a volume of Hitchens' essays was a major event on both sides of the Atlantic. Now comes a volume of Hitchens' previously uncollected essays, covering the themes that define Hitchens the thinker: literature, religion and politics. These essays remind us, once more, of the fierce, brilliant and trenchant voice of Christopher Hitchens.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56308033126773,"sku":"9781838952266","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781838952266_0b0cc858-bb4a-43e7-ae85-03f8c759b024.jpg?v=1786028268"},{"product_id":"9781838952297","title":"The Trial of Henry Kissinger","description":"\u003cp\u003eChristopher Hitchens goes straight for the jugular in \u003ci\u003eThe Trial of Henry Kissinger\u003c\/i\u003e. Under his fearsome gaze, the former Secretary of State and National Security Advisor is accused of being a war criminal whose reckless actions and heinous disregard for international law have led to torture, kidnapping, and murder.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis book is a polemical masterpiece by a man who, for forty years, was the Angloshpere's preeminent man of letters. In \u003ci\u003eThe Trial of Henry Kissinger\u003c\/i\u003e, Hitchens' verve, style and firebrand wit are on show at the height of their potency.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'A good liar must have a good memory: Kissinger is a stupendous liar with a remarkable memory.' Christopher Hitchens\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56308073791861,"sku":"9781838952297","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781838952297_79912b50-027a-4dd5-9842-3828696f4bda.jpg?v=1786028272"},{"product_id":"9781838952327","title":"For the Sake of Argument","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe global turmoil of the late 1980s and early 1990s severely tested every analyst and commentator. Few wrote with such insight as Christopher Hitchens about the large events - or with such discernment and wit about the small tell-tale signs of a disordered culture. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFirst published in 1993, the writings in \u003ci\u003eFor the Sake of Argument\u003c\/i\u003e range from the political squalor of Washington to the twilight of Stalinizm in Prague, from the Jewish quarter of Damascus in the aftermath of the Gulf War to the embattled barrios of Central America. Hitchens provides re-assessments of Graham Greene, P. G. Woodhouse and C. L. R. James, and his rogues' gallery gives us portraits of Henry Kissinger, Mother Theresa and P. J. O'Rouke. The addition of pieces on political assassination in America, as well as a devastating indictment of the evisceration of politics by  pollsters and spin doctors, and an entertaining celebration of booze and fags, complete this outstanding collection from a writer of unequalled talent.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56313018515829,"sku":"9781838952327","price":14.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781838952327_d2d245cc-237e-4beb-a6e4-478c80a65beb.jpg?v=1786028275"},{"product_id":"9781838956028","title":"A Hitch in Time","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e'Revisiting this selection of diaries and essay-reviews from the \u003ci\u003eLondon Review of Books \u003c\/i\u003eis restorative, an extended spa treatment that stretches tired brains and unkinks the usual habitual responses where Hitchens is concerned.'\u003ci\u003e James Wolcott in his introduction \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eChristopher Hitchens was a star writer wherever he wrote, and the same was true of the \u003ci\u003eLondon Review of Books\u003c\/i\u003e, to which he contributed sixty pieces over two decades. Anthologised here for the first time, this selection of his finest \u003ci\u003eLRB \u003c\/i\u003ereviews, diaries and essays (along with a smattering of ferocious letters) finds Hitchens at his very best. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFamiliar bêtes noires - Kennedy, Nixon, Kissinger, Clinton - rub shoulders with lesser-known preoccupations: P.G. Wodehouse, Princess Margaret and, magisterially, Isaiah Berlin. Here is Hitchens on the (first) Gulf War and the 'Salman Rushdie Acid Test', on being spanked by Mrs Thatcher in the House of Lords and taking his son to the Oscars, on America's homegrown Nazis and 'Acts of Violence in Grosvenor Square' in 1968. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eEdited by the \u003ci\u003eLondon Review of Books\u003c\/i\u003e, with an introduction by James Wolcott, this collection recaptures, ten years after his death, 'a Hitch in time': barnstorming, cauterising, and ultimately uncontainable.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56313018712437,"sku":"9781838956028","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781838956028_ca73cd08-19f3-4bb1-a174-1caa59cc2c4d.jpg?v=1786028398"},{"product_id":"the-portable-atheist","title":"The Portable Atheist","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA provocative, personally curated anthology of the most influential writings on atheism, from the \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003e bestselling author of \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eGod Is Not Great\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003e.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Portable Atheist\u003c\/i\u003e is an entertaining guided tour of atheist and agnostic thought through the ages—with never-before-published pieces by Salman Rushdie, Ian McEwan, and Ayaan Hirsi Ali. Christopher Hitchens continues to make the case for a splendidly godless universe in this first-ever gathering of the influential voices—past and present—that have shaped his side of the current (and raging) God\/no-god debate.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWith Hitchens as your erudite and witty guide, you'll be led through a wealth of philosophy, literature, and scientific inquiry, including generous portions of the words of Lucretius, Benedict de Spinoza, Charles Darwin, Karl Marx, Mark Twain, George Eliot, Bertrand Russell, Emma Goldman, H. L. Mencken, Albert Einstein, Daniel Dennett, Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins, and many others well-known and lesser known.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAnd they're all set in context and commented upon as only Christopher Hitchens can. Atheist? Believer? Uncertain? No matter: \u003ci\u003eThe Portable Atheist\u003c\/i\u003e will speak to you and engage you every step of the way.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57466578338165,"sku":"9780306816086","price":18.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780306816086.jpg?v=1785654636"},{"product_id":"letters-to-a-young-contrarian","title":"Letters to a Young Contrarian","description":"Art of Mentoring seriesIn the book that he was born to write, provocateur and best-selling author Christopher Hitchens inspires future generations of radicals, gadflies, mavericks, rebels, angry young (wo)men, and dissidents. Who better to speak to that person who finds him or herself in a contrarian position than Hitchens, who has made a career of disagreeing in profound and entertaining ways. This book explores the entire range of contrary positions-from noble dissident to gratuitous pain in the butt. In an age of overly polite debate bending over backward to reach a happy consensus within an increasingly centrist political dialogue, Hitchens pointedly pitches himself in contrast. He bemoans the loss of the skills of dialectical thinking evident in contemporary society. He understands the importance of disagreement-to personal integrity, to informed discussion, to true progress-heck, to democracy itself. Epigrammatic, spunky, witty, in your face, timeless and timely, this book is everything you would expect from a mentoring contrarian.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57481606693237,"sku":"9780465030330","price":14.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780465030330.jpg?v=1786089885"}],"url":"https:\/\/backstory.london\/collections\/author-christopher-hitchens.oembed","provider":"Backstory","version":"1.0","type":"link"}