Strident atheist intellectual, author and journalist Christopher Hitchens dies, aged 62, after battle with cancer

-Even after diagnosis he maintained his atheism: 'No evidence or argument has yet been presented which would change my mind. But I like surprises'

-In a debate with Tony Blair last year over religion he likened God to a 'celestial dictatorship, a kind of divine North Korea

-His editor at Vanity Fair: 'Christopher Hitchens was a wit, a charmer and a troublemaker, and to those who knew him well, he was a gift from, dare I say, God'

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2074866/Christopher-Hitchens-dead-Writer-dies-aged-62.html