Paul Johnson | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Johnson in March 2005 | |
| Born | Paul Bede Johnson (1928-11-02)2 November 1928 Manchester,Lancashire, England |
| Died | 12 January 2023(2023-01-12) (aged 94) London, England |
| Education | Stonyhurst College |
| Alma mater | Magdalen College, Oxford |
| Occupations |
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| Known for | Editor of theNew Statesman (1965–1970) |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 4, includingDaniel andLuke |
| Website | pauljohnsonarchives |
Paul Bede JohnsonCBE (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 theJesuit independent schoolStonyhurst College, and atMagdalen College, Oxford, where he studiedhistory.[1] He first came to prominence in the 1950s as a journalist writing for and later editing theNew Statesman magazine. A prolific writer, Johnson wrote more than 50 books and contributed to numerous magazines and newspapers.[2] His sons include the journalistDaniel Johnson, founder ofStandpoint magazine, and the businessmanLuke Johnson, former chairman ofChannel 4.
Johnson was born inManchester, England, on 2 November 1928. His father, William Aloysius Johnson, was an artist and principal of the Art School inBurslem,Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire. AtStonyhurst College, Johnson received an education grounded in the Jesuit method,[3] which he preferred over the more secularised curriculum used at theUniversity of Oxford.
Johnson attended the University of Oxford, where he was tutored by the historianA. J. P. Taylor,[4] and was a member of the exclusiveStubbs Society.
After graduating with asecond-class honours degree, Johnson performed hisnational service in the British Army, joining theKing's Royal Rifle Corps and then theRoyal Army Educational Corps, where he wascommissioned as acaptain (acting) based mainly inGibraltar.[4] Here he saw the "grim misery and cruelty of theFranco regime".[5]
Johnson's military record helped theParis periodicalRéalités hire him,[4] 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 theKorean War; he had just been appointedNATO's Supreme Commander in Europe), the "ferocity [of which] I would not have believed had I not seen it with my own eyes."[6]
He then served as theNew Statesman's Paris correspondent. For a time, he was a convincedBevanite and an associate ofAneurin Bevan himself. Moving back to London in 1955, Johnson joined theStatesman's staff.[7]
In 1957, Johnson published his first book, which was about theSuez War. An anonymous commentator inThe Spectator wrote that "one of his [Johnson's] remarks aboutMr Gaitskell is quite as damaging as anything he has to say about SirAnthony Eden", but theLabour Party's opposition to the Suez intervention led Johnson to assert "the old militant spirit of the party was back".[8] In 1958, he attackedIan Fleming'sJames Bond novelDr No.[9] In 1964, he warned of "The Menace of Beatlism",[10] in an article contemporarily described as being "rather exaggerated" byHenry Fairlie inThe Spectator.[11]The New York Times mocked Johnson's novelMerrie England (1964):
Grown-ups who have read Evelyn Waugh will find that satire requires more than indignation and a list of funny names... Curiously enough, the hero who tries to play Savonarola amid upper-class corruption is himself a public schoolboy. You can take the boy out of the Establishment, but you can't take the Establishment out of the boy.[12]
Johnson was successively lead writer, deputy editor and editor of theNew Statesman from 1965 to 1970. He was found suspect for his attendances at the soirées ofLady Antonia Fraser, who was at the time married to aConservative MP. There was some resistance to Johnson's appointment asNew Statesman editor, not least from the writerLeonard Woolf, who objected to a Catholic filling the position, and Johnson was placed on six months' probation.[13]
Statesmen and Nations (1971), the anthology of hisStatesman 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 ofMay 1968 in Paris, leadingColin Welch inThe Spectator to accuse Johnson of possessing "a taste for violence".[14] According to this book, Johnson filed 54 overseas reports during hisStatesman years.
During the late 1970s, Johnson began writing articles in theNew Statesman in which he criticized trade unions andleftism generally. Slightly later, theNew Statesman may have repudiated this, when it published an article criticising him, in a series of articles "Windbags of the West" about variousconservative journalists.
Johnson served on theRoyal Commission on the Press (1974–1977) and was a member of theCable Authority (regulator) from 1984 to 1990. From 1981 to 2009, he wrote a column forThe 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 ageneral social decline, whether in art, education, religious observance, or personal conduct. He continued to contribute to the magazine, although less frequently than before.[15] During the same period, he contributed a column to theDaily Mail until 2001. In aDaily Telegraph interview in November 2003, he criticised theMail 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."[16]
Johnson was a regular contributor toThe Daily Telegraph, where he was mainly as a book reviewer, and wrote forThe New York Times,The Wall Street Journal,Commentary,National Review, andForbes in the U.S.[17] For a time in the early 1980s, he wrote forThe Sun afterRupert Murdoch urged him to "raise its tone a bit".[18] Johnson was a critic ofmodernity because of what he saw as itsmoral relativism.[19] He objected to those who useCharles Darwin's theory ofevolution to justify their atheism, such asRichard Dawkins andSteven Pinker, or use it to promote biotechnological experimentation.[20][21][22] As a conservative Catholic, Johnson regardedliberation theology as aheresy and defendedclerical celibacy, but departed from others in seeing many good reasons for ordination of women as priests.[23]
Admired by conservatives in the United States and elsewhere, Johnson was stronglyanticommunist.[24] He defendedRichard Nixon in theWatergate scandal,[25] finding his cover-up considerably less heinous thanBill Clinton'sperjury andOliver North's involvement in theIran–Contra affair. In hisSpectator column, Johnson defended his friendJonathan Aitken,[26] and expressed admiration for Chilean dictatorAugusto Pinochet,[27] as well as limited admiration for Spanish fascist dictatorFrancisco Franco.[28]
Johnson was active in the campaign, led byNorman Lamont, to prevent Pinochet's extradition to Spain afterhis 1998 arrest in London. In 1999, Johnson was reported as saying: "There have been countless attempts to link him tohuman rights atrocities, but nobody has provided a single scrap of evidence."[29]
InHeroes (2008),[27] 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."[30]
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.[31] Johnson was aEurosceptic who played a prominent role in the "No" campaign during the1975 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."[32]
In 1958, Johnson married psychotherapist and formerLabour Party parliamentary candidate Marigold Hunt, daughter of Thomas Hunt, physician toWinston Churchill,Clement Attlee, andAnthony Eden. They had three sons and a daughter: the journalistDaniel Johnson,[33] a freelance writer, editor ofStandpoint magazine and previously associate editor ofThe Daily Telegraph;Luke Johnson,[33] businessman and former chairman ofChannel 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 politicianGeorge Walden. Their daughter,Celia Walden, is married to television presenter and former newspaper editorPiers Morgan.[34]
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".[35][36][37] 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".[38]
Johnson was an avidwatercolourist.[7] He was a friend of playwrightTom Stoppard, who dedicated his 1978 playNight and Day to him. Johnson died at his home in London on 12 January 2023, at the age of 94.[7][39]
In 1985, Johnson delivered the firstErasmus Lecture, inaugurating the annual lecture series sponsored byFirst 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.[40]
In 2006, Johnson was honoured with thePresidential Medal of Freedom byU.S. PresidentGeorge W. Bush.[41] Johnson was appointedCommander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the2016 Birthday Honours for services to literature.[42]
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Johnson's books are listed by subject or type. The country of publication is the UK, unless stated otherwise.
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| Preceded by | Editor of theNew Statesman 1965–1970 | Succeeded by |
