Paul Johnson (writer)

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Paul Bede Johnson Template:Post-nominals (2 November 1928 – 12 January 2023) was a British journalist, popular historian, speechwriter and author. Although associated with the political left in his early career, he became a popular conservative historian.

Johnson was educated at the Jesuit independent school Stonyhurst College, and at Magdalen College, Oxford, where he studied history.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He first came to prominence in the 1950s as a journalist writing for and later editing the New Statesman magazine. A prolific writer, Johnson wrote more than 50 books and contributed to numerous magazines and newspapers.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> His sons include the journalist Daniel Johnson, founder of Standpoint magazine, and the businessman Luke Johnson, former chairman of Channel 4.

Early life and education

Johnson was born in Manchester, England, on 2 November 1928. His father, William Aloysius Johnson, was an artist and principal of the Art School in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire. At Stonyhurst College, Johnson received an education grounded in the Jesuit method,<ref>As he saw it in his 1957 "Conviction" essay.</ref> which he preferred over the more secularised curriculum used at the University of Oxford.

Johnson attended the University of Oxford, where he was tutored by the historian A. J. P. Taylor,<ref name="bugles">Template:Citation</ref> and was a member of the exclusive Stubbs Society.

Career

British Army

After graduating with a second-class honours degree, Johnson performed his national service in the British Army, joining the King's Royal Rifle Corps and then the Royal Army Educational Corps, where he was commissioned as a captain (acting) based mainly in Gibraltar.<ref name="bugles" /> Here he saw the "grim misery and cruelty of the Franco regime".<ref>Conviction, p. 206.</ref>

Johnson's military record helped the Paris periodical Réalités hire him,<ref name="bugles" /> where he was assistant editor from 1952 to 1955. Johnson adopted a left-wing political outlook during this period as he witnessed in May 1952 the police response to a riot in Paris (Communists were rioting over the visit of American general, Matthew Ridgway, who commanded the US Eighth Army during the Korean War; he had just been appointed NATO's Supreme Commander in Europe), the "ferocity [of which] I would not have believed had I not seen it with my own eyes."<ref>The French Left, p. 46</ref>

He then served as the New StatesmanTemplate:'s Paris correspondent. For a time, he was a convinced Bevanite and an associate of Aneurin Bevan himself. Moving back to London in 1955, Johnson joined the StatesmanTemplate:'s staff.<ref name="Woodward">Template:Cite news</ref>

Author

In 1957, Johnson published his first book, which was about the Suez War. An anonymous commentator in The Spectator wrote that "one of his [Johnson's] remarks about Mr Gaitskell is quite as damaging as anything he has to say about Sir Anthony Eden", but the Labour Party's opposition to the Suez intervention led Johnson to assert "the old militant spirit of the party was back".<ref>"A Spectator' Notebook" Template:Webarchive, The Spectator, 25 January 1957, p. 7.</ref> In 1958, he attacked Ian Fleming's James Bond novel Dr No.<ref>Template:Citation, in Template:Citation</ref> In 1964, he warned of "The Menace of Beatlism",<ref>Template:Citation, reprinted as "From the archive: The Menace of Beatlism" Template:Webarchive, New Statesman, 28 August 2014.</ref> in an article contemporarily described as being "rather exaggerated" by Henry Fairlie in The Spectator.<ref>Henry Fairlie, "Beatles and Babies" Template:Webarchive, The Spectator, 6 March 1964, p. 4.</ref> The New York Times mocked Johnson's novel Merrie England (1964):Template:Quote

Johnson was successively lead writer, deputy editor and editor of the New Statesman from 1965 to 1970. He was found suspect for his attendances at the soirées of Lady Antonia Fraser, who was at the time married to a Conservative MP. There was some resistance to Johnson's appointment as New Statesman editor, not least from the writer Leonard Woolf, who objected to a Catholic filling the position, and Johnson was placed on six months' probation.<ref>Template:Cite webTemplate:Dead link</ref>

Statesmen and Nations (1971), the anthology of his Statesman articles, contains numerous reviews of biographies of conservative politicians and an openness to continental Europe. In one article, Johnson took a positive view of events of May 1968 in Paris, leading Colin Welch in The Spectator to accuse Johnson of possessing "a taste for violence".<ref>Colin Welch, "AfterThought: Imbecile Power". Template:Webarchive, The Spectator, 30 May 1968, p. 31.</ref> According to this book, Johnson filed 54 overseas reports during his Statesman years.

Ideological shift

During the late 1970s, Johnson began writing articles in the New Statesman in which he criticized trade unions and leftism generally. Slightly later, the New Statesman may have repudiated this, when it published an article criticising him, in a series of articles "Windbags of the West" about various conservative journalists.

Johnson served on the Royal Commission on the Press (1974–1977) and was a member of the Cable Authority (regulator) from 1984 to 1990. From 1981 to 2009, he wrote a column for The Spectator; initially focusing on media developments, it subsequently acquired the title "And Another Thing". In his journalism, Johnson generally dealt with issues and events that he saw as indicative of a general social decline, whether in art, education, religious observance, or personal conduct. He continued to contribute to the magazine, although less frequently than before.<ref>Contributor: Paul Johnson Template:Webarchive, spectator.co.uk website.</ref> During the same period, he contributed a column to the Daily Mail until 2001. In a Daily Telegraph interview in November 2003, he criticised the Mail for having a pernicious impact: "I came to the conclusion that that kind of journalism is bad for the country, bad for society, bad for the newspaper."<ref>Damian Thompson, "'I'm very fond of that boy Tony'", The Daily Telegraph, 3 November 2003.</ref>

Johnson was a regular contributor to The Daily Telegraph, where he was mainly as a book reviewer, and wrote for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Commentary, National Review, and Forbes in the U.S.<ref>Contributor page: Paul Johnson Template:Webarchive, Forbes.com.</ref> For a time in the early 1980s, he wrote for The Sun after Rupert Murdoch urged him to "raise its tone a bit".<ref>Paul Johnson, "And Another Thing" Template:Webarchive, The Spectator, 29 January 1994, p. 21.</ref> Johnson was a critic of modernity because of what he saw as its moral relativism.<ref>Paul Johnson, "What the temptations on the high mountain mean today" Template:Webarchive, The Spectator, 28 February 2009.</ref> He objected to those who use Charles Darwin's theory of evolution to justify their atheism, such as Richard Dawkins and Steven Pinker, or use it to promote biotechnological experimentation.<ref>Paul Johnson, "And Another Thing – Shaping up for a new moral catastrophe in the 21st century" Template:Webarchive, The Spectator, 16 October 1998, p. 26.</ref><ref>Paul Johnson, "The ayatollah of atheism and Darwin's altars" Template:Webarchive, The Spectator, 27 August 2005.</ref><ref>Paul Johnson, "And Another Thing – An entertaining evening finding out how Professor Pinker's mind works" Template:Webarchive, The Spectator, 31 January 1998, p. 22.</ref> As a conservative Catholic, Johnson regarded liberation theology as a heresy and defended clerical celibacy, but departed from others in seeing many good reasons for ordination of women as priests.<ref>Paul Johnson, "My Faith in Women". Template:Webarchive, The Tablet, 1 August 1998, p. 11.</ref>

Admired by conservatives in the United States and elsewhere, Johnson was strongly anticommunist.<ref>Paul Johnson, Modern Times, passim</ref> He defended Richard Nixon in the Watergate scandal,<ref>Paul Johnson, "In Praise of Richard Nixon" Template:Webarchive, Commentary, 86:4, October 1988, pp. 50–53.</ref> finding his cover-up considerably less heinous than Bill Clinton's perjury and Oliver North's involvement in the Iran–Contra affair. In his Spectator column, Johnson defended his friend Jonathan Aitken,<ref>Paul Johnson, "And Another Thing – The Aitken case: who is holding the scales of justice tilted?" Template:Webarchive, The Spectator, 28 March 1998, p. 19.</ref> and expressed admiration for Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet,<ref name="Lourie">"Pinochet remains a hero to me because I know the facts" (from Heroes, cited by Richard Lourie "Heroes Are People, Too" Template:Webarchive, The Washington Post, 2 December 2007.</ref> as well as limited admiration for Spanish fascist dictator Francisco Franco.<ref>Paul Johnson, "And Another Thing – Here is my list of the century's greatest political figures" Template:Webarchive, The Spectator, 13 November 1999, p. 38.</ref>

Johnson was active in the campaign, led by Norman Lamont, to prevent Pinochet's extradition to Spain after his 1998 arrest in London. In 1999, Johnson was reported as saying: "There have been countless attempts to link him to human rights atrocities, but nobody has provided a single scrap of evidence."<ref>Nick Hopkins, "Rightwing fan club tinkers with Chile history" Template:Webarchive, The Guardian, 20 January 1999.</ref>

In Heroes (2008),<ref name="Lourie" /> Johnson returned to his longstanding claim that criticism of Pinochet's dictatorship on human rights grounds came from "the Soviet Union, whose propaganda machine successfully demonised [Pinochet] among the chattering classes all over the world. It was the last triumph of the KGB before it vanished into history's dustbin."<ref>Paul Johnson, Heroes, HarperCollins Publishers (US), 2006, p. 279.</ref>

Johnson described France as "a republic run by bureaucratic and party elites, whose errors are dealt with by strikes, street riots and blockades" rather than a democracy.<ref>Paul Johnson, "Anti-Americanism Is Racist Envy" Template:Webarchive, Forbes, 21 July 2003.</ref> Johnson was a Eurosceptic who played a prominent role in the "No" campaign during the 1975 referendum on whether Britain should stay in the EC. In 2010, Johnson noted that "you can't have a common currency without a common financial policy, and you can't have that without a common government. The three things are interconnected. So this [European integration] was entirely foreseeable. Not much careful thought and judgment goes into the EU. It's entirely run by bureaucrats."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Personal life

In 1958, Johnson married psychotherapist and former Labour Party parliamentary candidate Marigold Hunt, daughter of Thomas Hunt, physician to Winston Churchill, Clement Attlee, and Anthony Eden. They had three sons and a daughter: the journalist Daniel Johnson,<ref name="Popham">Template:Cite news</ref> a freelance writer, editor of Standpoint magazine and previously associate editor of The Daily Telegraph; Luke Johnson,<ref name="Popham"/> businessman and former chairman of Channel 4; Sophie Johnson-Clark, an independent television executive; and Cosmo Johnson, playwright. Paul and Marigold Johnson have ten grandchildren. Marigold Johnson's sister, Sarah, married the journalist, former diplomat, and politician George Walden. Their daughter, Celia Walden, is married to television presenter and former newspaper editor Piers Morgan.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In 1998, it was revealed that Johnson had an eleven year affair with Gloria Stewart, a freelance journalist, who recorded them together in his study "at the behest of a British tabloid".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Elizabeth Grice, "Paul Johnson: 'After 70 you begin to mellowTemplate:'". Template:Webarchive, The Daily Telegraph, 4 June 2010.</ref> She first claimed to have made the affair public because she objected to Johnson's hypocrisy about religion and family values, but later acknowledged that their affair ended when Johnson "found another girlfriend".<ref>Christopher Hitchens, "The Rise and Fall of Paul "Spanker" Johnson", salon, [28 May 1998] Template:Webarchive</ref>

Johnson was an avid watercolourist.<ref name="Woodward" /> He was a friend of playwright Tom Stoppard, who dedicated his 1978 play Night and Day to him. Johnson died at his home in London on 12 January 2023, at the age of 94.<ref name="Woodward" /><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Public lectures

In 1985, Johnson delivered the first Erasmus Lecture, inaugurating the annual lecture series sponsored by First Things magazine and the Institute on Religion and Public Life. His address, titled “An Almost Chosen People,” examined the moral and religious character of the United States, exploring how American history and politics have been shaped by a sense of divine mission. As the inaugural Erasmus Lecture, it established the series’ tradition of inviting prominent writers, scholars, and public intellectuals to reflect on faith, culture, and the moral dimensions of public life.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Honours

In 2006, Johnson was honoured with the Presidential Medal of Freedom by U.S. President George W. Bush.<ref>"Paul Johnson" Template:Webarchive, Desert Island Discs, 15 January 2012.</ref> Johnson was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2016 Birthday Honours for services to literature.<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref>

Partial bibliography

{{ safesubst:#invoke:Unsubst||date=__DATE__ |$B=Template:AmboxTemplate:Main other }}Template:Sources Johnson's books are listed by subject or type. The country of publication is the UK, unless stated otherwise.

Anthologies, polemics and contemporary history

Art and architecture

  • 1980: British Cathedrals, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, Template:ISBN
  • 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 [1985 edn as History of the English People; 1998 edn as Offshore Islanders: A History of the English People], Weidenfeld & Nicolson
  • 1974: Elizabeth I: 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
  • 1976: A History of Christianity, Weidenfeld & Nicolson
  • 1977: Education of an Establishment, in The World of the Public School (pp. 13–28), edited by George MacDonald Fraser, Weidenfeld & Nicolson/St Martins Press (US edition)
  • 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
  • 1983: A History of the Modern World from 1917 to the 1980s, Weidenfeld & Nicolson – Paperback<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
  • 1983: 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 – Hardcover
  • 1986: The Oxford Book of Political Anecdotes, Oxford University Press (editor)
  • 1987: Gold Fields A Centenary Portrait, Weidenfeld & Nicolson
  • 1987: A History of the Jews, Weidenfeld & Nicolson
  • 1991: The Birth of the Modern: World Society 1815–1830, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, Template:ISBN
  • 1997: A History of the American People, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, Template:ISBN<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
  • 2000: The Renaissance: A Short History, Weidenfeld & Nicolson
  • 2002: Napoleon, Viking
  • 2005: George Washington: The Founding Father (Eminent Lives Series), Atlas Books
  • 2006: Creators: From Chaucer and Durer to Picasso and Disney, HarperCollins Publishers (US), Template:ISBN
  • 2007: Heroes: From Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar to Churchill and De Gaulle, HarperCollins Publishers (US), Template:ISBN
  • 2010: Humorists: From Hogarth to Noel Coward, HarperCollins Publishers (US), Template:ISBN
  • 2011: Socrates: A Man For Our Times, Viking (US)

Memoirs

  • 2004: The Vanished Landscape: A 1930s Childhood in the Potteries, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, Template:ISBN
  • 2010: Brief Lives, Hutchinson

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 (US), Template:ISBN (S&S Touchstone division paperback edition published in 1995)
  • 1982: Pope John Paul II and the Catholic Restoration, St Martins Press
  • 1996: The Quest for God: A Personal Pilgrimage, Weidenfeld & Nicolson/HarperCollins (US)
  • 1997: The Papacy, Weidenfeld & Nicolson
  • 2010: Jesus: A Biography From a Believer, Penguin Books

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 edn as Castles of England, Scotland And Wales]
  • 1984: The Aerofilms Book of London from the Air, Weidenfeld & Nicolson

References

Footnotes

Template:Reflist

Sources

  • Robin Blackburn "A Fabian at the End of His Tether" (New Statesman 14 December 1979, reprinted in Stephen Howe (ed) Lines of Dissent: Writings from the New Statesman 1913–88 London: Verso, 1988, pp284–96
  • Christopher Booker The Seventies: Portrait of a Decade Allen Lane, 1980 (chapters: "Paul Johnson: The Convert Who Went over the Top" pp238–44 and "Facing the Catastrophe" pp304–7

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