He is a British writer and journalist who wrote columns for The Independent (London) and The Huffington Post and made contributions to other publications. In 2011, he was suspended from The Independent after charges of plagiarism. He was also accused of making improper edits to several of his critics' Wikipedia pages under a pseudonym. The news led to his returning his 2008 Orwell Prize and later was a contributing factor in his leaving The Independent. In 2015, he released his second book, Chasing the Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs.