I write books about the history of philosophy, and articles and book reviews about all sorts of things. After studying philosophy at Cambridge University, I worked at The Economist from 1984 to 2006. Here is a brief CV from All Souls College, Oxford, and a more detailed version.

The sketch above is by Jeanie Morrison-Low and appeared in Diary of A Misplaced Philosopher, by Joseph North, published by Bloomsbury in 1989. Joseph North was a pen-name of my late friend, Oliver Black (download obituary). This fictionalised memoir includes a character named Abrams, who abandoned graduate studies in philosophy for a career in journalism.