Paul Johnson (journalist)
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Paul Johnson (born Paul Bede Johnson on November 2, 1928 in Lancashire, England) is a British Roman Catholic conservative historian, journalist and author. He was educated at Stowe School and Magdalen College, Oxford.
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Life and Career
Johnson came from a conservative, arguably far-right background; in 1938 his father changed his daily newspaper from the Daily Express to the Daily Mail because of the latter's explicit support for Franco in the Spanish Civil War. His father, an art school head and painter who died when Johnson was thirteen, is the ultimate source of Johnson's ongoing distaste for modern art, which he dismisses as "fashion art", and for the work of Picasso in particular. At Stowe School, Johnson received a Jesuitical education, which he preferred to the more secularized curriculum of Oxford, where, where one of his tutors was famed historian A. J. P. Taylor. After taking his degree, Johnson performed his National service in the army, based mainly in Gibraltar. Here he saw the "grim misery and cruelty of the Franco regime" (Conviction, p. 206).
He was hostile to the Labour government of Clement Attlee because of its policies of austerity and was mildly pleased when Winston Churchill returned to power after the 1951 General Election. In the early 1950s he worked on the staff of the Paris periodical Realités", a magazine which Johnson describes as "vaguely right of centre ... basically a tarted-up opiate for the wealthy, bien pensante bourgeoisie" (Ibid p. 207).
His conversion to the left came during this period as he witnessed, in May 1952, the police response to a riot in Paris, the "ferocity [of which] I would not have believed had I not seen it with my own eyes." Subsequently, he also served as the New Statesman's Paris correspondent. For a time he was a convinced Bevanite and an associate of Aneurin Bevan himself. Moving back to London in 1955, he joined the Statesman's staff; he was leader writer, deputy editor and then editor from 1965 to 1970. He served on the Royal Commission on the Press (1974-77) and later was a member of the Cable Authority (regulator) from 1984 to 1990.
After his political return to the right, he started to contribute a column for the The Spectator in 1981; initially focusing on media developments, the column subsequently acquired the title "And Another Thing", which, nevertheless, varies in tone and content. In addition he is a regular contributor to The Daily Telegraph, mainly as a book reviewer, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and other publications. He wrote a column in the Daily Mail for many years; his description of the (former) chief executive of Channel 4 television Michael Grade, as "Britain's pornographer-in-chief" (because of the channel's sexually explicit programming) is still much quoted.
Johnson is regularly mocked in the liberal British press (and Private Eye) for what his critics regard as inconsistencies and changes of opinion. Once a speechwriter for the British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, he now admires Tony Blair (though hardly anyone else in New Labour), principally for his foreign policies. He does not see himself as being inconsistent, arguing that he has admired individuals more than political philosophies.
Johnson has also been criticized for his defense of Richard Nixon in the Watergate scandal and Oliver North in the Iran-Contra Affair.
In his Spectator column he defended convicted perjurer and friend Jonathan Aitken and has openly expressed admiration for General Franco and General Pinochet. Johnson is a critic of the enlightenment because of its implicit disavowal of faith and also finds Charles Darwin and the theory of evolution objectionable for the same reason. The scientist (and notable atheist) Richard Dawkins is invariably a target of Johnson's in this context. He views the Bible as containing the literal truth of God, despite several centuries of scholarship questioning the Bible's accuracy.
A hero of conservatives in the United States, he is strongly anti-communist; according to Johnson the anger in Marx's writings makes his views invalid (In the Psychiatrist's Chair BBC Radio 4 1991).
Paul Johnson has been married to the psychotherapist Marigold Hunt since 1958. They have three sons: the literary journalist Daniel Johnson; Luke Johnson, the businessman and chairman of (ironically) Channel 4 Television; Cosmo James Johnson and a daughter, Sophie, who has worked as a television scriptwriter.
Bibliography
Johnson's books are listed by subject or type. The country of publication is the UK, unless stated otherwise
Anthologies, polemics & contemporary history
1957 Conviction MacGibbon & Kee (contribution: "A Sense of Outrage" p202-17, with Brian Abel-Smith, Nigel Calder, Richard Hoggart, Mervyn Jones, Norman Mackenzie (ed), Peter Marris, Iris Murdoch Peter Shore, Hugh Thomas, Peter Townsend & Raymond Williams)
1957 The Suez War MacGibbon & Kee
1958 Journey Into Chaos MacGibbon & Kee [Western Policy in the Middle East]
1971 Statesmen And Nations Sidgwick & Jackson [An anthology of New Statesman articles from the 1950s and 1960s. Often surprisingly mild in tone given Johnson's later development.]
1977 Enemies of Society Weidenfeld & Nicolson
1980 The Recovery of Freedom (Mainstream Series) Basil Blackwell
1981 The Best of Everything - Animals, Business, Drink, Travel, Food, Literature, Medicine, Playtime, Politics, Theatre, Young World, Art, Communications, Law and Crime, Films, Pop Culture, Sport, Women's Fashion, Men's Fashion, Music, Military (ed by William Davis) - contributor
1985 The Pick of Paul Johnson Harrap
1986 The Oxford Book Of Political Anecdotes (2nd ed 1991) Oxford University Press
1989 Intellectuals Weidenfeld & Nicolson
1994 The Quotable Paul Johnson A Topical Compilation of His Wit, Wisdom and Satire (George J. Marlin, Richard P. Rabatin, Heather S. Richardson (Editors)) 1994 Noonday Press/1996 Atlantic Books(US)
1994 Wake Up Britain - a Latter-day Pamphlet Weidenfeld & Nicolson
1996 To Hell with Picasso & Other Essays: Selected Pieces from “The Spectator” Weidenfeld & Nicolson
1998 The Body Politic New English Library
Art
1993 Gerald Laing : Portraits Thomas Gibson Fine Art Ltd (with Gerald Laing & David Mellor MP)
1999 Julian Barrow's London Fine Art Society
2003 Art: A New History Weidenfeld & Nicolson
History
1972 The Offshore Islanders: England's People from Roman Occupation to the Present/to European Entry [Offshore Islanders: A History of the English People [1998ed] Weidenfeld & Nicolson]
1974 Elizabeth: a Study in Power and Intellect Weidenfeld & Nicolson
1974 The Life and Times of Edward III Weidenfeld & Nicolson
1976 Civilizations of the Holy Land Weidenfeld & Nicolson
1978 The Civilization of Ancient Egypt Weidenfeld & Nicolson
1981 Ireland: A Concise History from the Twelfth Century to the Present Day [as ...Land of Troubles 1980 Eyre Methuen] Granada
1984 Modern Times: A History of the World from the 1920s to the 1980s Weidenfeld & Nicolson [later, ...Present Time and ...Year 2000 2005 ed] Weidenfeld & Nicolson
1985 History of the English People Weidenfeld & Nicolson [Originally published under the title Offshore Islanders]
1987 Gold Fields A Centenary Portrait Weidenfeld & Nicolson
1987 [2001ed] The History of the Jews Weidenfeld & Nicolson
1991 The Birth of the Modern: World Society 1815-1830 Weidenfeld & Nicolson
1996 The Holocaust Phoenix [pages 482 to 517 of A History of the Jews]
1997 A History of the American People Weidenfeld & Nicolson
2002 The Renaissance [: A Short History *] Weidenfeld & Nicolson/*Random House (USA)
2002 Napoleon (Lives S.) Weidenfeld & Nicolson [2003 Phoenix pbk]
Memoir
2004 The Vanished Landscape: A 1930s Childhood in the Potteries Weidenfeld & Nicolson
Novels
1959 Left of Centre MacGibbon & Kee ["Left Of Centre describes the meeting of a Complacent Young Man with an Angry Old City"]
1964 Merrie England MacGibbon & Kee
Religion
1975 Pope John XXIII Hutchinson
1977 A History of Christianity Weidenfeld & Nicolson /1976 Simon & Schuster /Atheneum (USA)
1982 Pope John Paul II And The Catholic Restoration St Martins Press
1996 The Quest for God: A Personal Pilgrimage Weidenfeld & Nicolson/HarperCollins (USA)
1997 The Papacy Weidenfeld & Nicolson
Travel
1973 The Highland Jaunt Collins (with George Gale)
1974 A Place in History: Places & Buildings Of British History Omega [Thames TV (UK) tie-in]
1978 National Trust Book of British Castles Granada Paperback [1992 Weidenfeld ed as Castles Of England, Scotland And Wales]
1980 British Cathedrals Weidenfeld & Nicolson
1984 The Aerofilms Book of London from the Air Weidenfeld & Nicolsonpl:Paul Johnson