Paul Johnson (born Paul Bede Johnson on 2 November 1928 in Manchester, England) is a British Roman Catholic journalist, historian, speechwriter and author. He was educated at Stonyhurst College, and Magdalen College, Oxford. Johnson first came to prominence in the 1950s as a journalist writing for, and later editing, the New Statesman magazine. A prolific writer, he has written over 40 books and contributed to numerous magazines and newspapers. Whilst associated with the left in his early career, he is now a prominent conservative popular historian. November 2 is the 306th day of the year (307th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar, with 59 days remaining. ... Year 1928 (MCMXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Manchester shown within England Coordinates: , Sovereign state United Kingdom Constituent country England Region North West England Ceremonial county Greater Manchester Admin HQ Manchester City Centre Founded 13th Century City Status 1853 Government  - Type Metropolitan borough, City  - Governing body Manchester City Council Area  - Borough & City 115. ... Motto (French) God and my right Anthem No official anthem - the United Kingdom anthem God Save the Queen is commonly used England() – on the European continent() – in the United Kingdom() Capital (and largest city) London (de facto) Official languages English (de facto)1 Unified  -  by Athelstan 927 AD  Area  -  Total... The Roman Catholic Church, most often spoken of simply as the Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with over one billion members. ... Stonyhurst College is a Roman Catholic English Jesuit independent boarding school near Clitheroe, Lancashire, England. ... College name Magdalen College Latin name Collegium Beatae Mariae Magdalenae Named after Mary Magdalene Established 1458 Sister college Magdalene College, Cambridge President Professor David Clary FRS JCR President Jessica Jones Undergraduates 395 MCR President Eloise Scotford Graduates 230 Location of Magdalen College within central Oxford , Homepage Boatclub Magdalen College (pronounced... The University of Oxford (usually abbreviated as Oxon. ... This does not cite any references or sources. ... The New Statesman is a left-of-centre political weekly published in London. ...

Early life and career

At Stonyhurst, Johnson received an education grounded in the Jesuit method, which he preferred over the more secularized curriculum of Oxford. One of his tutors at Oxford was the historian A.J.P. Taylor.[1] For others named John Taylor, see John Taylor. ...

After graduating with a lower second-class honours degree, Johnson performed his National service in the army, joining the King's Royal Rifle Corps and then the Education Corps where he was commissioned as a Captain (acting) based mainly in Gibraltar.[2] Here he saw the "grim misery and cruelty of the Franco regime" (Conviction, p. 206). The British undergraduate degree classification system is a grading scheme for undergraduate degrees (bachelors degrees and some masters degrees) in the United Kingdom. ... National service is a common name for compulsory or voluntary military service programs. ... The Kings Royal Rifle Corps was a British Army formation. ... In military organizations, an officer is a member of the service who holds a position of responsibility. ... Captain is a rank or title with various meanings. ...

In the early 1950s he worked on the staff of the Paris periodical Realités, where he was assistant editor (1952-55).

Johnson became a liberal 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. “Leftism” redirects here. ... 1952 (MCMLII) was a Leap year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ... The New Statesman is a left-of-centre political weekly published in London. ... Bevanism was the ideological argument for the Bevanites, a movement on the centre left of the Labour Party in the late 1950s and led by Nye Bevan. ... A statue of Bevan in Cardiff. ...

Johnson received some resistance to his 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 month's probation. Some of Johnson's articles already showed signs of iconoclasm though: in 1964 he warned of "The Menace of Beatlism," [3], and he was also found suspect for his attendances at the soirees of Lady Antonia Fraser, then married to a Conservative MP. Leonard Woolf (November 25, 1880 РAugust 14, 1969) married Virginia Woolf in 1912. ... Lady Antonia Fraser, n̩e Pakenham, (born August 27, 1932) is a British author of history and novels, best known for writing biographies. ... The Conservative Party (officially the Conservative and Unionist Party) is the second largest political party in the United Kingdom in terms of sitting Members of Parliament (MPs), the largest in terms of public membership, and the oldest political party in the United Kingdom. ...

Statesmen And Nations (1971), the anthology of his Statesman articles, contains a curious split between numerous reviews of biographies of Conservative politicians and an openness to continental Europe; in one article Johnson even took a positive view of events of May 1968 in Paris, although remaining conscious of the problems of violence in periods of political change. According to this book, Johnson filed fifty-four overseas reports during his Statesman years. Alan Watkins, the political journalist and a former colleague at the Statesman, once claimed in a Guardian feature on Johnson that he is at heart a paternalist conservative who fitted in with the left for a time. A May 1968 poster: Be young and shut up, with stereotypical silhouette of General de Gaulle. ... British journalist Alan Watkins is a columnist who writes on politics and rugby. ... The Guardian is a British newspaper owned by the Guardian Media Group. ...

Recent decades

During the 1970s Johnson became increasingly conservative in his outlook, where he has largely remained. In his Enemies of Society (1977), following a series of articles in the British press, he vehemently attacked the trade union movement over its violence and intolerance, terming them "fascists". Certainly, as Britain’s economy faltered, Johnson began to perceive a solution in Margaret Thatcher’s message of less government and less taxation. Emotionally and mentally, he was won over to the Right and became among the closest advisers to Margaret Thatcher. “In the 1970s Britain was on its knees. The left had no answers. I became disgusted by the over-powerful trade unions which were destroying Britain,” he recalls. [4] After Margaret Thatcher's victory in the general election of 1979 Johnson advised on changes to legislation concerning trade unions, and was also one of Mrs Thatcher's speechwriters. “I was instantly drawn to her," he recalls. "I’d known Margaret at Oxford. She was not a party person. She was an individual who made up her own mind. People would say that she was much influenced by Karl Popper or Frederick Hayek." He taught her to follow a mix of Adam Smith and the Ten Commandments. "The result was that Thatcher followed three guiding principles: truthfulness, honesty and never borrowing money,” says Johnson. [5] Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, LG, OM, PC (born October 13, 1925), former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, in office from 1979 to 1990. ... The United Kingdom general election of 1979 was held on 3 May 1979 and is regarded as a pivotal point in 20th century British politics. ... Legislation (or statutory law) is law which has been promulgated (or enacted) by a legislature or other governing body. ... A union (labor union in American English; trade union, sometimes trades union, in British English; either labour union or trade union in Canadian English) is a legal entity consisting of employees or workers having a common interest, such as all the assembly workers for one employer, or all the workers...

Johnson began writing a column for The Spectator in 1981; initially focusing on media developments, it subsequently acquired the title "And Another Thing", which varies in tone and content. In his journalism Johnson is apt to see evidence of general decline, whether in art, education, religious observance or personal conduct. [6] [7] Cover of the Nov 12, 2005 issue of The Spectator magazine. ...

Johnson wrote a column for the Daily Mail until 2001. His break with the Mail has left him bitter. In a Daily Telegraph interview in November 2003 though, 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".[8] The Daily Mail is a British newspaper and the oldest tabloid, first published in 1896. ... This article deals with The Daily Telegraph in Britain, see The Daily Telegraph (Australia) for the Australian publication The Daily Telegraph is a British broadsheet newspaper founded in 1855. ...

In addition to his column in The Spectator, Johnson is a regular contributor to The Daily Telegraph, mainly as a book reviewer, and in the United States to The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and the National Review. For a time in the early 1980s he wrote for the The Sun. Cover of the Nov 12, 2005 issue of The Spectator magazine. ... This article concerns the British newspaper. ... The New York Times is a daily newspaper published in New York City by Arthur Ochs Sulzberger Jr. ... The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) is an influential international daily newspaper published by Dow Jones & Company in New York City, New York with Asian and European editions, and a worldwide daily circulation of more than 2 million as of 2006, with 931,000 paying online subscribers [2]. It was the... National Review (NR) is a biweekly magazine of political opinion, founded by author William F. Buckley, Jr. ... This article is about a British tabloid. ...

Johnson is a critic of modernity because of what he sees as its moral shortcomings.[9] and also finds those who use Charles Darwin's theory of evolution to justify their atheism or use it to promote biotechnological experimentation [10] objectionable. As a result of Johnson's views on evolution,[11] the Darwinian scientist and noted atheist Richard Dawkins[12] has been a target of Johnson's pen in the past. As a conservative Catholic, he regarded Liberation theology as a heresy and defends clerical celibacy, but sees women priests as inevitable.[13] Modernity is a term used to describe the condition of being modern. Since the term modern is used to describe a wide range of periods, modernity must be understood in its context. ... For other people of the same surname, and places and things named after Charles Darwin, see Darwin. ... This article is about evolution in biology. ... For information about the band, see Atheist (band). ... Clinton Richard Dawkins (born March 26, 1941) is a British ethologist, evolutionary biologist, and popular science writer who holds the Charles Simonyi Chair for the Public Understanding of Science at Oxford University. ... Liberation theology is a school of theology that focuses on Jesus Christ as not only the Redeemer but also the Liberator of the Oppressed. ... Look up Heresy in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Clerical celibacy is the practice of various religious traditions in which clergy, monastics and those in religious orders (female or male) adopt a celibate life, refraining from marriage and sexual relationships, including masturbation and impure thoughts (such as sexual visualisation and fantasies). ...

Admired by conservatives in the United States, he is strongly anti-communist[14]. Johnson has defended Richard Nixon[15] in the Watergate scandal, finding his cover-up considerably less heinous than Bill Clinton's perjury, and Oliver North in the Iran-Contra Affair. In his Spectator column he has defended convicted perjurer and friend Jonathan Aitken[16] and has expressed admiration for General Franco.[17] He has, on the other hand, criticized European countries, in particular France, for being undemocratic [18]. Anti-communism is opposition to communist ideology, organization, or government, on either a theoretical or practical level. ... Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913 – April 22, 1994) was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. ... The Watergate building. ... William Jefferson Bill Clinton (born William Jefferson Blythe III[1] on August 19, 1946) was the 42nd President of the United States, serving from 1993 to 2001. ... Perjury is the act of lying or making verifiably false statements on a material matter under oath or affirmation in a court of law or in any of various sworn statements in writing. ... Oliver Laurence North (born October 7, 1943) is most well known for his involvement in the Iran-Contra Affair. ... The Iran-Contra Affair (also Irangate), was a political scandal occurring in 1987 as a result of earlier events during the Reagan administration in which members of the executive branch sold weapons to Iran, an avowed enemy, and illegally used the profits to continue funding rebels, the Contras, in Nicaragua. ... The Spectator is a British conservative political magazine, established 1828, published weekly. ... Jonathan William Patrick Aitken (born August 30, 1942) is a former Conservative Member of Parliament, British government minister and convicted perjurer. ... Generalísimo Francisco Franco, caudillo de España por la gracia de Dios Francisco Paulino Hermenegildo Teódulo Franco y Bahamonde Salgado Pardo de Andrade (December 4, 1892 - November 20, 1975), abbreviated Francisco Franco Bahamonde and sometimes known as Generalísimo Francisco Franco, was dictator of Spain from 1939 until...

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.

In 2006, Johnson was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President George W. Bush. The Presidential Medal of Freedom The Presidential Medal of Freedom is one of the two highest civilian awards in the United States and is bestowed by the President of the United States (the other award which is considered its equivalent is the Congressional Gold Medal, which is bestowed by an... George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is the 43rd and current President of the United States, inaugurated on January 20, 2001. ...

Private life

Paul Johnson has been married to the psychotherapist and former Labour Party parliamentary candidate Marigold Hunt, since 1958. The marriage, by Johnson's own admission, has been stormy; he once commented that his marriage could have broken up over a dozen times. In 1998 Johnson's longstanding mistress, the writer Gloria Stewart, revealed their affair, including tape recordings: "Paul loved to be spanked and it was a big part of our relationship. I had to tell him he was a very naughty boy," Stewart revealed. ^[1] Year 1958 (MCMLVIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Once reportedly a heavy drinker, he now limits his intake, and as a result, his wife is believed to have described him in the late nineties as "far less barmy than he used to be"^[2][3]. They have three sons and a daughter: the journalist Daniel Johnson, who worked until recently as an associate editor of The Daily Telegraph, before becoming a freelance writer in 2005; Luke Johnson, businessman and chairman of Channel 4 Television; Cosmo Johnson; and Sophie Johnson-Clark, who has worked as a television script editor and now resides in the USA. Paul Johnson has eight grandchildren. Luke Johnson (born 1959), is a British serial entrepreneur, best known for his dealings with Pizza Express. ...

Sources

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

References

1. ^ Christopher Hitchens "The Rise and Fall of Paul 'Spanker' Johnson", salon.com, 28 May 1998. Retrieved on 30 May 2007.
2. ^ http://www.randomhouse.com/modernlibrary/pjohnson.html
3. ^ http://www.nytimes.com/books/00/09/03/specials/johnson-contrarian.html

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" pp202-17, 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

• 1988 Intellectuals Weidenfeld & Nicolson

• 1994 The Quotable Paul Johnson A Topical Compilation of His Wit, Wisdom and Satire (George J. Marlin, Richard P. Rabatin, Heather Higgins (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

Art Heather R. Higgins appeared on the 21 April 2006 episode of Real Time with Bill Maher Heather Richardson Higgins (b. ...

• 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 [19]

History

• 1972 The Offshore Islanders: England's People from Roman Occupation to the Present/to European Entry [1985ed as History of the English People; 1998ed 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

• 1977 Education of an Establishment in The World Of the Public School (pp13-28), 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

• 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

• 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 ISBN 0-06-093034-9 [20]

• 2002 The Renaissance [: A Short History *] Weidenfeld & Nicolson/*Random House (USA)

• 2002 Napoleon (Lives S.) Weidenfeld & Nicolson [2003 Phoenix pbk]

• 2005 George Washington: The Founding Father (Eminent Lives Series) Atlas Books

• 2006 Creators HarperCollins Publishers (USA) ISBN 0-06-019143-0

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 A History of Christianity is a historical study of the Christian Religion written by British journalist and author Paul Johnson. ...

• 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 & Nicolson

External links

• Philosophy Now paper The Uses and Abuses of Philosophical Biographies on Johnson's Intellectuals (1988)
• Feud - and it's a scorcher! - article by John Walsh on Johnson's differences with The Guardian in The Independent July 28, 1997
• New York Times Featured Author September 9, 2000: Paul Johnson