Derek Thompson

Derek Thompson grew up in London and started writing fiction in his teens. After spending a year in the US, he returned to London and subsequently moved to the West Country. He wrote a commissioned piece for The Guardian in 2008 and entered the world of freelance writing in 2009. His short fiction has been featured in both British and American anthologies and can be found online. He has also written comedy material for live performances and radio.

His love of film noir and thrillers began with The Big Sleep and has never left him. Much of his fiction involves death, data, or secrets. As the saying goes: write about what you know. He writes about Thomas Bladen and his role in the Surveillance Support Unit.

His books have been described as snarky (yes, it’s a real word), pared down, and morally ambiguous. What more could any novelist ask for? Apart from pens — you can never have too many pens.

Derek Thompson is a senior editor at The Atlantic magazine and a weekly news analyst for NPR's "Here and Now." He was born in McLean, Va., in 1986, and he graduated from Northwestern University, in 2008, with a triple major in journalism, political science, and legal studies. He hasn't done much with the latter two. 

In 2015, he wrote the cover story "A World Without Work" about the future of jobs and technology. "Hit Makers," his first book on the secret histories of pop culture hits and the science of popularity, comes out in February 2017. He has appeared on Forbes' "30 Under 30" list and Time's "140 Best Twitter Feeds." He lives in Manhattan.