Paul Johnson (journalist)

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Template:NPOV Paul Johnson (born Paul Bede Johnson on November 2, 1928 in Manchester, England) is a British Roman Catholic historian, journalist and author. He was educated at Stonyhurst College, and Magdalen College, Oxford. Johnson first came to prominence in the 1950s as a journalist on the left writing for, and later editing, the New Statesman magazine. From the mid-1970s he became associated with the conservative right which, along with his work as a popular historian, led to him gaining an international following in a radically changed political environment.

Contents 1 Early life and career 2 Recent decades 3 Private life 4 Other references 5 Bibliography 6 External links

Early 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. Johnson has credited his mother, who was an Asquithian Liberal, with developing some of his sensibilities.

At Stonyhurst[1], Johnson received an education grounded in Jesuit methods, which he preferred to the more secularized curriculum of Oxford, where one of his tutors was famed historian A. J. P. Taylor.

After graduating with a lower-second class 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).

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, where he was assistant editor (1952-55). The magazine Johnson described a few years later 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.

Statesmen And Nations (1971), the anthology of his Statesman articles, it might be argued, has 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 a paternalist conservative who fitted in with the left for a time.

Recent decades

Although Johnson still voted Labour in the general election of 1970, the decade saw him evolve into a right-wing polemicist, which he remains. In Enemies of Society (1977), following a series of articles in the British press, he vehemently attacked the trade union movement for what he saw as its violence and intolerance, terming them as "red fascists", and started to inveigh against other progressive causes. He saw the left as threatening individual rights defined, in common with the modern right, as freedom from prior restraint rather than the pluralism associated with the removal of discrimination against minorities. Despite the character of his polemics, he continued to find a home at the Statesman in to the late 'seventies. 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.

Johnson started to contribute a column for 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. The most characteristic quality of his journalism is the "thin end of the wedge" argument where the situation is always perceived as deteriorating.[3] [4] The years in which his column concentrated on the media were much concerned with attacking the "cosy duopoly", which he felt the British television industry then was, in particular criticising the BBC for a supposed left-wing bias. He also supported the business strategy pursued by Rupert Murdoch in transforming the British newspaper industry.

For many years, Johnson wrote a column for the Daily Mail, its run ending in 2001. 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) became a rather notorious and much cited comment. In a Daily Telegraph interview in November 2003 though, he criticised the Daily 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." [5] His differences with the "family values" Mail may originate with the Daily Express' revelations in February 1998 concerning Johnson's twelve-year sado-masochistic affair with another journalist, Gloria Stewart, in which he enjoyed having his bare bottom spanked for being a "naughty boy".

In addition to his column in The Spectator, he 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. In the early 'eighties he wrote for the most populist of Thatcherite publications, The Sun newspaper, for a while.

Johnson is a critic of the enlightenment because of its implicit disavowal of faith[6] and also finds Charles Darwin and the theory of evolution[7] objectionable for the same reason. He agrees with the traditional Christian view of the Bible as containing the literal truth about the nature of the universe (including truths which can be evaluated scientifically). As a result of Johnson's views on evolution, the Darwinian scientist (and noted atheist) Richard Dawkins[8] has been a target of Johnson's ire in the past. As a conservative Catholic, he regards Liberation theology as a heresy and defends Clerical celibacy, but sees women priests as inevitable.[9]

A hero of conservatives in the United States, he is strongly anti-communist[10]; according to Johnson the anger in Marx's writings makes his views invalid (In the Psychiatrist's Chair BBC Radio 4 1991). Johnson has defended Richard Nixon[11] 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[12] and has openly expressed admiration for General Franco and General Pinochet[13].

He was an early admirer of Tony Blair, principally for his foreign policies, but has more recently fallen into line as an opponent; he disliked everything else about the Labour Party under Blair, particularly objecting to its Scottish element.[14] He does not see himself as being inconsistent, arguing that he has admired individuals more than political philosophies. An amateur painter, of landscapes rather than portraits, he has admitted to a fascination with faces.[15]

Johnson is regularly mocked in the liberal British press[16] for what his critics regard as inconsistencies and changes of opinion. Private Eye long used the epithet 'Paul "Loonybins" Johnson', though the magazine originally applied the tag to American President Lyndon B. Johnson for his policies in the Vietnam War. Despite accusations that Johnson's historical writings are mere propaganda which twist facts, he can develop an antipathy to conservative governments, as he showed during the years John Major was Prime Minister in the UK.[17]

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.

Private life

Paul Johnson has been married to the psychotherapist Marigold Hunt since 1958. The marriage, by Johnson's own admission has been stormy; he once commented, before his affair became public knowledge, that his marriage could have broken up over a dozen times. 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". [18][19] They have three sons: the journalist Daniel Johnson; Luke Johnson, businessman and chairman of (ironically) Channel 4 Television and Cosmo James Johnson and also a daughter, Sophie, who has worked as a television script editor.

Other references

• 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: Potrait of a Decade 1980 Allen Lane (chapters: Paul Johnson: The Convert Who Went over the Top pp238-44 and Facing the Catastrophe pp304-7)

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 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 [20]

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 0060930349 [21]

• 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

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 & 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

Template:Start box {{succession box

 | title  = Editor of the New Statesman
 | years  = 1965–1970
 | before = John Freeman
 | after =  Richard Crossman 

}} Template:End boxpl:Paul Johnson