Peter Hitchens - Christopher Hitchens

Christopher Hitchens

Peter's elder brother was the writer and atheist Christopher Hitchens. Christopher said that the main difference between the two is a belief in the existence of God. Peter has stated "We're different people, we have different lives, we have entirely different pleasures, we live in different continents. If we weren't brothers we wouldn't know each other."

The brothers fell out after Peter wrote an article in 2001 in The Spectator alleging Christopher had said he "didn't care if the Red Army watered its horses at Hendon"—a claim denied by Christopher. After the birth of Peter's third child, the two brothers reconciled, although Christopher stated, "There is no longer any official froideur, but there's no official—what's the word?—chaleur, either." Hitchens's review of God Is Not Great led to public argument between the brothers but to no renewed estrangement. In the review, Peter claimed his brother's book made a number of incorrect assertions.

In 2007, the brothers appeared as panellists on BBC TV's Question Time, where they clashed on a number of issues. In 2008, in the US, they debated the invasion of Iraq and the existence of God. Peter stated it would be the last time he would debate with his brother in public; however, in 2010 at the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, the pair debated the nature of God in civilization.

Christopher Hitchens died in 2011, and at a memorial service held for him in New York his brother read a passage from St Paul's Epistle to the Philippians.