I’m a science writer. I write Semafor.com’s daily Flagship email; I also do freelance science writing. Before joining Semafor in September 2022 I was science writer at the i newspaper; before that, the science editor at UnHerd; before that, science writer for BuzzFeed UK; before that, I was a comment and features writer for the Telegraph.
My third book, Everything is Predictable: How Bayes’ Remarkable Theorem Explains the World, is out now. My second book, How to Read Numbers: A Guide to Statistics in the News (and Knowing When to Trust Them) was published in 2021; my first book, The Rationalist’s Guide to the Galaxy: Superintelligent AI and the Geeks Who Are Trying to Save Humanity’s Future, was published in 2019. I’ve written for the Times, the i, the Telegraph, the Observer, the Guardian, politics.co.uk, New Scientist, CNN, Wired, Smithsonian Air & Space, and elsewhere.
I’ve won several awards, including the Royal Statistical Society’s award for statistical excellence in journalism (twice, in 2018 and 2020) and the Association of British Science Writers’ science journalist of the year (in 2021). My first book was one of the Times’s science books of the year.
Tom Chivers 
Dear Tom,
I was delighted to find your name on Twitter. You must be the son of Eileen snd Chris. I was a colleague of your mother and father at Alleyn’s where we all taught English. In fact, Eileen and I started at the school the same term, in September 1979 and soon became good friends. She was a wonderful teacher, full of energy, with a brilliant mind, respected by her colleagues and adored by her pupils. We would often sit together at break time, chatting non stop on a very wide range of topics. I remember that Chris had a beautiful singing voice.
I missed Eileen terribly when she left Alleyn’s and I was very sad to hear that she later passed away. Whenever I walk past the Memorial Garden at the school, I think of her and, as I now have two granddaughters at the Junior school, I am there quite often. I finally retired in 2007.
I have wondered, over the years, how you were getting on – it was good to read about your interesting career.
My son is Jay Elwes, former deputy editor of Prospect Magazine and now commissioning editor of TheArticle. I’ll try to put you in touch.
With very best wishes,
Jean Cary-Elwes
Jean, hi. I think you have the wrong Tom Chivers – my parents are Alison and Andy, and are both alive and well. HOWEVER, I wonder if you are referring to Tom Chivers the poet. You can find him on twitter at @thisisyogic and he edits Penned in the Margins. I would give you his email address as well, but on a public forum I think I’d better not. Feel free to DM me on twitter if you can’t get hold of him and I’ll put you in touch.
Hello. I work for Oxford University Press, in Canada. We are publishing a textbook, titleded Perspectives, in which we would like to use your article Legalizing cannabis is the best way to protect kids from its harmful effects whch can be found at thid url:https://www.cnn.com/2018/10/17/opinions/canadian-cannabis-legalization-chivers-opinion-intl/index.html
Would you be able to licesne this to us?
I would be happy to answer any questions you may have.
Be well,
Sandy
Hi Tom, your blog is excellent, as is your twitter.
Hi Tom,
I enjoyed your book “Everything is Predictable” very much. I believe it will be an excellent introduction to most people who are not familiar with Bayesian statistics or have been using it without knowing.
Just to point out a mistake in the book: on page 196, Leonid Brezhnev was never Premier of the Soviet Union throughout his life (1906 – 1982). He was the General Secretary of the Party (1964 – 1982), the most powerful position in the Soviet Union era, and was twice Chairman of the Presidium (President of Soviet Union, 1960 – 1964, and 1977 – 1982). His successors, Yuri Andropov and Konstantin Chernenko, both held the General Secretary and Chairman of the Presidium positions while in power.
Looking forward to your future books!
Best Regards,
Yeow-Beng
Singapore
Hi Yeow-Beng! Thank you so much. Absolutely thrilled you enjoyed the book. I’ll look into this and correct it for the paperback if needs be – you’re the first to point out this one! (There are a few other errors as well. Very embarrassing.)
Thanks again
Tom