Christopher Pearson (journalist)

Christopher Pearson (28 August 1951 – 7 June 2013) was an Australian journalist who wrote for The Australian and who for many years beforehand had edited a monthly cultural magazine, The Adelaide Review.

Although born in Sydney, he spent most of his life in Adelaide. He received a Bachelor of Arts with Honours from Flinders University as well as a Graduate Diploma in Education from the University of Adelaide. A member of the Council of the National Museum of Australia, he was also on the board of the government-owned SBS television station.^[1] In addition, he served as a speech writer to the Prime Minister, John Howard, and was also a friend and mentor to another Prime Minister, Tony Abbott.^[2]

He was employed with The Australian, a national broadsheet. There he wrote commentaries and articles that covered a wide variety of cultural and religious matters pertaining to Australian society. He had, on occasion, discussed international issues such as global warming.

In a September 2009 piece in The Australian, Pearson wrote about how he reconciled his homosexuality with his Catholicism.^[3] Pearson had converted to Catholicism in 1999.^[4]

A selection of Pearson's writings, edited by Nick Cater and Helen Baxendale, was published in 2014 under the title A Better Class of Sunset, with introductions by Tony Abbott and Jack Snelling,^[5] both of whom had previously written or spoken admiringly of his work.^[2]

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