Richard Littlejohn - Journalism

Journalism

At 16, Littlejohn went to work as a trainee journalist in Peterborough. He worked for local newspapers during the early 1970s. In the mid-1970s, he joined the Birmingham Evening Mail as an industrial correspondent.

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. While industrial editor in the early 1980s he was asked to stand as a Labour Party candidate, which he declined. 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, contributing columns on news and current affairs (in a similar format to his Sun column), and one on sport. His Mail columns earned him the title "Columnist of the Year" at the 1997 British Press Awards.

In February 1998, Littlejohn became the UK's best-paid columnist when he returned to The Sun to write a twice-weekly column as part of a £1 million deal, which also included presenting for BSkyB.

In May 2005, the Mail announced that he was re-joining the paper in a move that Mail editor Paul Dacre described as "returning to his spiritual home". The Sun sought an injunction to prevent Littlejohn writing for the Mail before his existing contract with them ended in February 2006, but the matter was later settled out of court and Littlejohn began writing for the Mail in December 2005.

In addition to regular columns, Littlejohn has contributed articles to The Spectator and Punch.

One of Littlejohn's Sun columns - a 2004 skit, entitled "Rum, Sodomy and the Lifejacket", in which Lord Nelson is confronted with political correctness, compensation culture and the nanny state - has been published in newspapers, magazines, and websites with Littlejohn's writing credit removed.