Ariane Sherine

Ariane Sherine (born 3 July 1980) is an English comedy writer and journalist. She created the Atheist Bus Campaign, which ran in 13 countries during January 2009.

Career

Sherine writes regularly for The Guardian's Comment & Debate section,^[1] and has also written for The Sunday Times^[2] and The Independent.^[3] She started in journalism aged 21, reviewing albums for NME,^[4] before coming runner-up in the BBC Talent New Sitcom Writers' Award 2002.^[5] She then wrote comedy for British TV shows including the BBC sitcoms My Family^[6] and Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps,^[7] and links for the Channel 4 quiz show Countdown after appearing on the show in 2003.^[8] In addition, Sherine wrote episodes of several CBBC and CITV shows, including The Story of Tracy Beaker,^[9] The New Worst Witch^[10] and Space Pirates,^[11] before returning to journalism in early 2008.

Atheism

Sherine and Richard Dawkins at the Atheist Bus Campaign launch in London

Sherine started the Atheist Bus Campaign in response to an evangelical Christian bus advertisement which gave the URL of a website "telling non-Christians they would spend 'all eternity in torment in hell', burning in 'a lake of fire'".^[12] She was brought up Christian, although her father is currently a Unitarian Universalist, while her mother's side of the family are Parsi Zoroastrians (both parents are non-practising).^[13] In 2009, Sherine was nominated for Secularist of the Year 2009 (The Irwin Prize),^[14] a title awarded by the National Secular Society.

In January 2009, Sherine gave a non-religious equivalent of Thought for the Day on Radio 4's iPM programme.^[15][16] She spoke about accepting the beliefs of others as long as they are expressed peacefully, and how the freedom to hold them is more important than the beliefs themselves. Sherine's broadcast follows a similar one made by Richard Dawkins in 2002.^[17] Thought for the Day continues to be reserved for religious speakers in its usual slot on Radio 4's Today Programme, on weekday mornings.

In October 2009 the first atheist charity book, The Atheist's Guide to Christmas was released, which Sherine had been editing for the prior six months. The full advance and royalties from the book were donated to the UK HIV charity, Terrence Higgins Trust.^[18]

In late 2009, Sherine announced that she was ceasing atheist campaigning and returning to journalism and writing a novel.^[19][20] She remains a distinguished supporter of the British Humanist Association.^[21]

Philanthropy

In December 2013, Sherine launched a new campaign in The Guardian called Give Just One Thing,^[22] linked to a free e-book she had written called Give: How to Be Happy, available from the website givebook.co.uk. The campaign encouraged people to do just one of ten practical actions to improve the world, from signing the Organ Donor register to organising a charity initiative. As part of the campaign, Sherine sold 50% of her possessions in aid of the humanitarian charity Medecins Sans Frontieres.^[23]

Personal life

Sherine has a daughter, and is a single mother.^[24]

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ariane Sherine.

• Ariane Sherine's official website
• Ariane Sherine's Guardian profile
• atheistcampaign.org, the Atheist Bus Campaign
• Ariane Sherine's Blog