TOM WHIPPLE
Agent: Sarah Williams
Tom Whipple is the Science Editor at the Times. He studied maths at Cambridge and after twice being named Guardian Student Feature Writer of the Year, he started freelancing features for the Guardian before, eventually getting a staff job at the Times.
In the course of his job Tom has reported from the inside of the world's hottest sauna and the top of Europe's highest mountain. He has visited the villagers who refuse to leave Chernobyl, the Alpine hikers who refuse to wear clothes while rambling and the Easter Islanders who are convinced their stone megaliths walk. He also spent a week on Everest covering the 60th anniversary of its ascent. Tom has been arrested by the Danish police and the Tamil Tigers: the latter were a lot more polite.
Tom still writes freelance features for the Economist Intelligent Life among other magazines. He was named British Society of Magazine Editors Print Writer of the Year 2015.
Tom’s book How to Win Games and Beat People was published by Random House in the UK and HarperCollins in the US in 2015. His wife has stopped playing Scrabble with him because, she claims, Tom is too competitive, and has learnt all the two letter words. She also argues, like losing Scrabble players the world over, that it is against the spirit of the game to use words despite not knowing their meaning. To which Tom replies - such accusations are terrible qi.
Tom's latest book, a scientific examination of the battle of the sexes, X and Why was published by Short Books in April 2018.