NOBODY KNOWS YOU LIKE A BROTHER:

The Hitchens brothers: Anatomy of a row: Christopher and Peter Hitchens are two of Britain's most famous scribes, but they appear to agree on nothing. After their latest public spat, James Macintyre, who has known both brothers for many years, dissects their very odd relationship (James Macintyre, 11 June 2007, Independent)

That the pair in question are bitterly divided brothers only served to raise the temperature last week when Mail on Sunday columnist Peter Hitchens went on the attack in a review of his elder sibling Christopher's new anti-religion book, God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything .

"People sometimes ask how two brothers, born less than three years apart, should have come to such different conclusions," wrote Peter, adding enigmatically: "To which I'd answer that I'm not sure they're as different as they look, and that it's not over yet."

Other than an acknowledgment that, "[Like] everything Christopher writes, it is often elegant, frequently witty and never stupid or boring" , Peter's review was damning, and even questioned whether Christopher truly believed his own assertion that there isn't a God.

Peter, 55, confirms to me that he was implying in his review that Christopher, 58, was closer to religious belief than he had ever accepted.

Indeed, it's a last gasp attempt to talk himself out of the faith that has been creeping up on him.

Posted by Orrin Judd at June 11, 2007 12:02 AM