Richard Littlejohn (born 18 January 1954) is an English author, broadcaster and opinion column writer, having started his career as a journalist. As of May 2023, he writes a twice-weekly column for the Daily Mail about British affairs.
Littlejohn has been a columnist for The Sun, but had written for The Spectator and the London Evening Standard. Littlejohn earned a place in the inaugural Press Gazette Newspaper Hall of Fame as one of the most influential journalists of the past 40 years. He was awarded the title of "Columnist of the Year" at the 1997 British Press Awards. and for alleged anti-gay bigotry. His family moved to Peterborough when he was five. He was offered a public school scholarship which he turned down because the school did not play football, and subsequently attended Deacon's School in Dogsthorpe, Peterborough.
Journalism
At 16, Littlejohn found employment as a trainee journalist in Peterborough. He worked for local newspapers during the early 1970s.
He worked at the London newspaper the Evening Standard from 1979 to 1989, initially as industrial editor, later a feature writer, then in 1988 as a columnist. In 1989, he joined The Sun as a columnist, which attracted controversy, and he was voted "Irritant of the Year" at the 1992 What The Papers Say Awards.
In March 1993 he gave his support to the "Save the New Statesman fund" to raise cash to contest libel suits served on the magazine by the then Prime Minister John Major and caterer Claire Latimer.
In 1994, he left The Sun to write for the Daily Mail,
In addition to regular columns, Littlejohn has contributed articles to The Spectator
In 2004, the Diary column of The Guardian newspaper documented the results of a "Littlejohn audit"—a count of the number of references Littlejohn makes to homosexuality in his columns. Marina Hyde of The Guardian wrote in 2004: