Andrew Hankinson. Writer.
ABOUT ME
I’ve been a professional writer since 2003. I’ve written for the New Yorker, Air Mail, Wired, FT Weekend Magazine, Observer, BBC Radio 4, GQ, Spectator, Esquire, Guardian, New Statesman, Telegraph and Sunday Times. I’ve written two nonfiction books and won awards. I was also the artistic advisor on the Royal Court Theatre’s production of Manhunt in 2025. You can email me at andrewhankinson [@] hotmail.com. My agent is Toby Mundy.
JOURNALISM
I trained as a journalist at Darlington College, worked as a staff writer in London, then became a freelancer. I’ve reported from places such as Haiti, Saudi Arabia and Iraq, covering complex stories such as chemical weapons and heart surgery. (The picture above is me during a week of reporting at Chernobyl when its new shelter was being built.) Some recent work and older work is linked below (some of the pieces below are paywalled, so please email if you would like a PDF):
Our Friends in the North (Observer, 2026)
What is Dominic Cummings up to? (Observer, 2026)
Graham Linehan won’t shut up (Observer, 2025)
Into the Manosphere (Observer, 2025)
Sycamore Gap (Observer, 2025)
A boy who killed himself (BBC Radio 4, 2020)
Children dying in Haiti (Vice, 2017)
Upset at the comedians’ table (New Yorker, 2017)
Syria's chemical weapons (Wired, 2014)
Newcastle cuts (New Statesman, 2013)
Intergenerational unfairnesss (Observer Magazine, 2010)
FELLED
My third nonfiction book, published in 2026, is about the felling of the tree at Sycamore Gap, having attended the trial and sentencing of the two men who were jailed for the crime. Responses include:
“Sharp and insightful” The Times
“A haunting longform feature writer. The whole piece is an eerie and compelling telling of how these two misfit loners with a chainsaw — as well as the author trying to understand them — are a little lost” The Critic
“A brilliantly singular voice … like the concentric lines in a severed trunk it tells a hidden and much more deeply rooted story: that of men, class, justice, loneliness, the North and much more besides” Benjamin Myers
“I read Felled in one sitting, but I will be thinking about it for a long time to come … It confirms Hankinson as one of our best writers of non-fiction, the natural heir of the late Gordon Burn” Andy Miller
'“Brilliant. Honest, humane and profound” David Whitehouse
“Unflinching study of male desperation. Really bastard good” Joel Morris
“Agonising, profound and beautiful … An unforgettable book” Will Storr
“A true crime masterpiece for the 21st century” Alex Niven
DON'T APPLAUD. EITHER LAUGH OR DON'T. (AT THE COMEDY CELLAR.)
My second nonfiction book, published in 2020 in the UK and 2021 in the US, told the story of a comedy club in New York. It was about power, speech, and the return of Louis CK. Responses included:
“Superb” The Atlantic
“Excellent” Dara Ó Briain
”Thought-provoking” TLS
“Hankinson is a master of showing, not telling” Helen Lewis
“Fascinating” Al Murray
“Compelling” Unherd
“A fascinating book” Monocle
“Fucking fantastic” Doug Stanhope
“All the makings of a future cult classic” Benjamin Myers
YOU COULD DO SOMETHING AMAZING WITH YOUR LIFE [YOU ARE RAOUL MOAT]
My debut book was published in 2016. It told the true story of the murderer Raoul Moat from Moat's point of view in second-person. It won a Northern Writers Award and the CWA non-fiction prize.
“Extraordinary” Spectator
“Brilliantly written [...] Smart literary nonfiction" Jon Ronson
“A powerful portrayal of the banality of violence” Sunday Times
“An experiment in empathy” Louis Theroux
“Uncomfortable, claustrophobic” Guardian
“A remarkable book” Irish Independent
“Uncomfortable work, and necessary" TLS
“Powerfully and claustrophobically effective” London Review of Books
”Perhaps the most brilliant piece of extended journalism in recent years” Jewish Chronicle
“Desperately sad” Observer
“Devastating” LA Review of Books
“Riveting and formally dazzling” The Atlantic
APPEARANCES
I've appeared on television and radio. I’ve done events at the Edinburgh International Book Festival, London's Southbank Centre, and at festivals around the UK. I was a Read Regional author in 2017, contributed to New Narratives for the North East in 2020, and was a Gordon Burn Prize judge in 2024. I've also appeared on podcasts such as Shakespeare & Co, Always Take Notes, Little Atoms and Monocle.