Julie Burchill (born July 3, 1959 in Frenchay, Bristol, UK) is British journalist known for her acerbic writing. She started her career writing for the New Musical Express (NME) after responding, with her husband-to-be Tony Parsons, to an advert in that paper seeking hip young gunslingers to write about the then emerging punk movement.

Until 2003, she wrote a weekly column in The Guardian. She currently writes for The Times. Shortly after starting her weekly column she referred to George Galloway but appeared to confuse him with former MP Ron Brown, reporting the misdeeds of Brown as those of Galloway. Galloway threatened legal action which was averted when she apologised and The Times paid damages ^*.

Burchill is noted for her confrontational and iconoclastic views, which have been criticised as contradictory. In the 1980s, she wrote in favour of Margaret Thatcher, but she has always claimed she has never renounced the Communist beliefs of her youth. She is a consistent defender of the old Soviet Union. Burchill champions the working-class against the middle-class in most cases, and has been particularly vocal in defending the much-maligned chavs.

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