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Paul Johnson (journalist)
Encyclopedia
Paul Bede Johnson is an English
journalist, historian, speechwriter and author. He was educated at the Jesuit independent school Stonyhurst College
, and at 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. While associated with the left in his early career, he is now a conservative popular historian
. His sons are the journalist Daniel Johnson
, founder of Standpoint
, and the businessman Luke Johnson, until recently chairman of Channel 4
.
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 historian A. J. P. Taylor
.
After graduating with a second-class honours degree, Johnson performed his national service
in the 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
. Here he saw the "grim misery and cruelty of the Franco regime". Johnson's military record helped the Paris periodical Realités hire him, where he was assistant editor (1952–55).
Johnson adopted a left-wing
political outlook 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 Statesmans staff; he was lead writer, deputy editor and then editor from 1965 to 1970.
Johnson received some resistance to his appointment as New Statesman editor, not least from the writer Leonard Woolf
who objected to a Catholic's filling the position, and Johnson was placed on six months' probation. Some of Johnson's articles already showed signs of iconoclasm: in 1964 he warned of "The Menace of Beatlism," and he was also found suspect for his attendances at the soirées of Lady Antonia Fraser
, then married to a Conservative
MP.
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, although remaining conscious of the problems of violence in periods of political change. According to this book, Johnson filed 54 overseas reports during his Statesman years.
’s message of less government and less taxation. He was eventually won over to the Right and became one of Thatcher's closest advisers. “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 recalled later. After Thatcher's victory in the general election of 1979
Johnson advised on changes to legislation
concerning trade unions, and was also one of 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. The result was that Thatcher followed three guiding principles: truthfulness, honesty and never borrowing money,” says Johnson.
Johnson wrote a column for the conservative British weekly magazine The Spectator
from 1981 to 2009; initially focusing on media developments, it subsequently acquired the title "And Another Thing". In his journalism Johnson generally deals with issues and events which he sees as indicative of a general social decline, whether in art, education, religious observance or personal conduct.
Johnson wrote a column for 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".
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
, Commentary
, and the National Review
. He also writes for the Current Events column at Forbes.com. For a time in the early 1980s he wrote for The Sun
.
Johnson is a critic of modernity
because of what he sees as its moral shortcomings, and also finds objectionable those who use Charles Darwin
's theory of evolution
to justify their atheism or use it to promote biotechnological experimentation. As a result of Johnson's views on evolution, the Darwinian scientist and noted atheist Richard Dawkins
has been a target of Johnson's pen in the past. As a conservative Catholic, Johnson also regards liberation theology
as a heresy
and defends clerical celibacy
, but alludes to many good reasons for ordination of women as priests.
Admired by conservatives in the United States and elsewhere, he is strongly anti-communist. Johnson has defended Richard Nixon
in the Watergate scandal, 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
, has expressed qualified admiration for General Franco, and described Augusto Pinochet
as one of his heroes. On the other hand he has criticised European countries, in particular France
, for being undemocratic.
He served on the Royal Commission on the Press (1974–77) and was a member of the Cable Authority (regulator) from 1984 to 1990.
In 2006 Johnson was honoured with the Presidential Medal of Freedom
by U.S. President George W. Bush
.
, a freelance writer, editor of Standpoint
magazine, and previously associate editor of The Daily Telegraph who is married to the writer and birth educator Sarah Johnson nee Thompson; Luke Johnson, businessman and former chairman of Channel 4 Television; Cosmo Johnson; and Sophie Johnson-Clark, who has worked as a television script editor and now resides in the US and is married to the underground sportswriter and author Spike Vrusho (aka Mike Clark). Paul Johnson has ten grandchildren.
In 1998 it was revealed Johnson had an affair lasting eleven years with writer Gloria Stewart. Stewart went public with the affair to the newspapers after what she saw as Johnson’s hypocrisy over his views on morality, religion and family values and also asserted that Johnson liked erotic spanking
: "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." Johnson is a friend of British playwright Tom Stoppard
, who dedicated his 1978 play Night and Day
to Johnson.
Johnson is a watercolourist, painting mainly landscapes, who has exhibited regularly.
English people
The English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity is of early mediaeval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn. England is now a country of the United Kingdom, and the majority of English people in England are British Citizens...
journalist, historian, speechwriter and author. He was educated at the Jesuit independent school Stonyhurst College
Stonyhurst College
Stonyhurst College is a Roman Catholic independent school, adhering to the Jesuit tradition. It is located on the Stonyhurst Estate near the village of Hurst Green in the Ribble Valley area of Lancashire, England, and occupies a Grade I listed building...
, and at Magdalen College
Magdalen College, Oxford
Magdalen College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. As of 2006 the college had an estimated financial endowment of £153 million. Magdalen is currently top of the Norrington Table after over half of its 2010 finalists received first-class degrees, a record...
, Oxford
University of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...
. Johnson first came to prominence in the 1950s as a journalist writing for, and later editing, the New Statesman
New Statesman
New Statesman is a British centre-left political and cultural magazine published weekly in London. Founded in 1913, and connected with leading members of the Fabian Society, the magazine reached a circulation peak in the late 1960s....
magazine. A prolific writer, he has written over 40 books and contributed to numerous magazines and newspapers. While associated with the left in his early career, he is now a conservative popular historian
Popular history
Popular history is a broad and somewhat ill-defined genre of historiography that takes a popular approach, aims at a wide readership, and usually emphasizes narrative, personality and vivid detail over scholarly analysis...
. His sons are the journalist Daniel Johnson
Daniel Johnson (journalist)
Daniel Benedict Johnson is a British journalist who is the founding editor of Standpoint.- Biography :After graduating with a First in Modern History from Magdalen College, Oxford, Johnson was awarded a Shakespeare Scholarship to Berlin...
, founder of Standpoint
Standpoint (magazine)
Standpoint is a monthly British cultural and political magazine. Its premier issue was published at the end of May 2008 – the first launch of a major current affairs publication in the UK in more than a decade....
, and the businessman Luke Johnson, until recently chairman of Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
.
Early life and career
Johnson's father, William Aloysius Johnson, was an artist and Principal of the Art School in Burslem. At StonyhurstStonyhurst College
Stonyhurst College is a Roman Catholic independent school, adhering to the Jesuit tradition. It is located on the Stonyhurst Estate near the village of Hurst Green in the Ribble Valley area of Lancashire, England, and occupies a Grade I listed building...
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 historian A. J. P. Taylor
A. J. P. Taylor
Alan John Percivale Taylor, FBA was a British historian of the 20th century and renowned academic who became well known to millions through his popular television lectures.-Early life:...
.
After graduating with a second-class honours degree, Johnson performed his national service
National service
National service is a common name for mandatory government service programmes . The term became common British usage during and for some years following the Second World War. Many young people spent one or more years in such programmes...
in the Army, joining the King's Royal Rifle Corps
King's Royal Rifle Corps
The King's Royal Rifle Corps was a British Army infantry regiment, originally raised in colonial North America as the Royal Americans, and recruited from American colonists. Later ranked as the 60th Regiment of Foot, the regiment served for more than 200 years throughout the British Empire...
and then the Royal Army Educational Corps
Royal Army Educational Corps
The Royal Army Educational Corps was a corps of the British Army tasked with educating and instructing personnel in a diverse range of skills...
where he was commissioned as a Captain (acting) based mainly in Gibraltar
Gibraltar
Gibraltar is a British overseas territory located on the southern end of the Iberian Peninsula at the entrance of the Mediterranean. A peninsula with an area of , it has a northern border with Andalusia, Spain. The Rock of Gibraltar is the major landmark of the region...
. Here he saw the "grim misery and cruelty of the Franco regime". Johnson's military record helped the Paris periodical Realités hire him, where he was assistant editor (1952–55).
Johnson adopted a left-wing
Left-wing politics
In politics, Left, left-wing and leftist generally refer to support for social change to create a more egalitarian society...
political outlook 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
New Statesman
New Statesman is a British centre-left political and cultural magazine published weekly in London. Founded in 1913, and connected with leading members of the Fabian Society, the magazine reached a circulation peak in the late 1960s....
Paris correspondent. For a time he was a convinced Bevanite
Bevanism
Bevanism was the ideological argument for the Bevanites, a movement on the Left wing of the Labour Party in the late 1950s and led by Nye Bevan. They were opposed by the Gaitskellites, who are variously described as Centre-left, Social Democrats, or 'moderates' within the Party.Bevanism was...
and an associate of Aneurin Bevan
Aneurin Bevan
Aneurin "Nye" Bevan was a British Labour Party politician who was the Deputy Leader of the Labour Party from 1959 until his death in 1960. The son of a coal miner, Bevan was a lifelong champion of social justice and the rights of working people...
himself. Moving back to London in 1955, he joined the Statesmans staff; he was lead writer, deputy editor and then editor from 1965 to 1970.
Johnson received some resistance to his appointment as New Statesman editor, not least from the writer Leonard Woolf
Leonard Woolf
Leonard Sidney Woolf was an English political theorist, author, publisher and civil servant, and husband of author Virginia Woolf.-Early life:...
who objected to a Catholic's filling the position, and Johnson was placed on six months' probation. Some of Johnson's articles already showed signs of iconoclasm: in 1964 he warned of "The Menace of Beatlism," and he was also found suspect for his attendances at the soirées of Lady Antonia Fraser
Antonia Fraser
Lady Antonia Margaret Caroline Fraser, DBE , née Pakenham, is an Anglo-Irish author of history, novels, biographies and detective fiction, best known as Antonia Fraser...
, then married to a Conservative
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
MP.
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, although remaining conscious of the problems of violence in periods of political change. According to this book, Johnson filed 54 overseas reports during his Statesman years.
Recent decades
During the 1970s Johnson became increasingly conservative in his outlook, and has largely remained so. In his Enemies of Society (1977), following a series of articles in the British press, he opposed the trade union movement, perceiving it as violent and intolerant, terming trade unionists "fascists". As Britain’s economy faltered, Johnson began to advocate future British Prime Minister Margaret ThatcherMargaret Thatcher
Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990...
’s message of less government and less taxation. He was eventually won over to the Right and became one of Thatcher's closest advisers. “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 recalled later. After Thatcher's victory in the general election of 1979
United Kingdom general election, 1979
The United Kingdom general election of 1979 was held on 3 May 1979 to elect 635 members to the British House of Commons. The Conservative Party, led by Margaret Thatcher ousted the incumbent Labour government of James Callaghan with a parliamentary majority of 43 seats...
Johnson advised on changes to legislation
Legislation
Legislation is law which has been promulgated by a legislature or other governing body, or the process of making it...
concerning trade unions, and was also one of 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
Karl Popper
Sir Karl Raimund Popper, CH FRS FBA was an Austro-British philosopher and a professor at the London School of Economics...
or Frederick Hayek. The result was that Thatcher followed three guiding principles: truthfulness, honesty and never borrowing money,” says Johnson.
Johnson wrote a column for the conservative British weekly magazine The Spectator
The Spectator
The Spectator is a weekly British magazine first published on 6 July 1828. It is currently owned by David and Frederick Barclay, who also owns The Daily Telegraph. Its principal subject areas are politics and culture...
from 1981 to 2009; initially focusing on media developments, it subsequently acquired the title "And Another Thing". In his journalism Johnson generally deals with issues and events which he sees as indicative of a general social decline, whether in art, education, religious observance or personal conduct.
Johnson wrote a column for the Daily Mail
Daily Mail
The Daily Mail is a British daily middle-market tabloid newspaper owned by the Daily Mail and General Trust. First published in 1896 by Lord Northcliffe, it is the United Kingdom's second biggest-selling daily newspaper after The Sun. Its sister paper The Mail on Sunday was launched in 1982...
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".
Johnson is a regular contributor to The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. The newspaper was founded by Arthur B...
, mainly as a book reviewer, and in the United States to The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal is an American English-language international daily newspaper. It is published in New York City by Dow Jones & Company, a division of News Corporation, along with the Asian and European editions of the Journal....
, Commentary
Commentary (magazine)
Commentary is a monthly American magazine on politics, Judaism, social and cultural issues. It was founded by the American Jewish Committee in 1945. By 1960 its editor was Norman Podhoretz, a liberal at the time who moved sharply to the right in the 1970s and 1980s becoming a strong voice for the...
, and the National Review
National Review
National Review is a biweekly magazine founded by the late author William F. Buckley, Jr., in 1955 and based in New York City. It describes itself as "America's most widely read and influential magazine and web site for conservative news, commentary, and opinion."Although the print version of the...
. He also writes for the Current Events column at Forbes.com. For a time in the early 1980s he wrote for The Sun
The Sun (newspaper)
The Sun is a daily national tabloid newspaper published in the United Kingdom and owned by News Corporation. Sister editions are published in Glasgow and Dublin...
.
Johnson is a critic of modernity
Modernity
Modernity typically refers to a post-traditional, post-medieval historical period, one marked by the move from feudalism toward capitalism, industrialization, secularization, rationalization, the nation-state and its constituent institutions and forms of surveillance...
because of what he sees as its moral shortcomings, and also finds objectionable those who use Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin
Charles Robert Darwin FRS was an English naturalist. He established that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestry, and proposed the scientific theory that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process that he called natural selection.He published his theory...
's theory of evolution
Evolution
Evolution is any change across successive generations in the heritable characteristics of biological populations. Evolutionary processes give rise to diversity at every level of biological organisation, including species, individual organisms and molecules such as DNA and proteins.Life on Earth...
to justify their atheism or use it to promote biotechnological experimentation. As a result of Johnson's views on evolution, the Darwinian scientist and noted atheist Richard Dawkins
Richard Dawkins
Clinton Richard Dawkins, FRS, FRSL , known as Richard Dawkins, is a British ethologist, evolutionary biologist and author...
has been a target of Johnson's pen in the past. As a conservative Catholic, Johnson also regards liberation theology
Liberation theology
Liberation theology is a Christian movement in political theology which interprets the teachings of Jesus Christ in terms of a liberation from unjust economic, political, or social conditions...
as a heresy
Heresy
Heresy is a controversial or novel change to a system of beliefs, especially a religion, that conflicts with established dogma. It is distinct from apostasy, which is the formal denunciation of one's religion, principles or cause, and blasphemy, which is irreverence toward religion...
and defends clerical celibacy
Clerical celibacy
Clerical celibacy is the discipline by which some or all members of the clergy in certain religions are required to be unmarried. Since these religions consider deliberate sexual thoughts, feelings, and behavior outside of marriage to be sinful, clerical celibacy also requires abstension from these...
, but alludes to many good reasons for ordination of women as priests.
Admired by conservatives in the United States and elsewhere, he is strongly anti-communist. Johnson has defended Richard Nixon
Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. The only president to resign the office, Nixon had previously served as a US representative and senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961 under...
in the Watergate scandal, finding his cover-up considerably less heinous than Bill Clinton's
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...
perjury
Perjury
Perjury, also known as forswearing, is the willful act of swearing a false oath or affirmation to tell the truth, whether spoken or in writing, concerning matters material to a judicial proceeding. That is, the witness falsely promises to tell the truth about matters which affect the outcome of the...
, and Oliver North
Oliver North
Oliver Laurence North is a retired U.S. Marine Corps officer, political commentator, host of War Stories with Oliver North on Fox News Channel, a military historian, and a New York Times best-selling author....
's involvement in the Iran-Contra Affair
Iran-Contra Affair
The Iran–Contra affair , also referred to as Irangate, Contragate or Iran-Contra-Gate, was a political scandal in the United States that came to light in November 1986. During the Reagan administration, senior Reagan administration officials and President Reagan secretly facilitated the sale of...
. In his Spectator column Johnson defended his friend Jonathan Aitken
Jonathan Aitken
Jonathan William Patrick Aitken is a former Conservative Member of Parliament in the United Kingdom, and British government minister. He was convicted of perjury in 1999 and received an 18-month prison sentence, of which he served seven months...
, has expressed qualified admiration for General Franco, and described Augusto Pinochet
Augusto Pinochet
Augusto José Ramón Pinochet Ugarte, more commonly known as Augusto Pinochet , was a Chilean army general and dictator who assumed power in a coup d'état on 11 September 1973...
as one of his heroes. On the other hand he has criticised European countries, in particular France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, for being undemocratic.
He served on the Royal Commission on the Press (1974–77) and was a member of the Cable Authority (regulator) from 1984 to 1990.
In 2006 Johnson was honoured with the Presidential Medal of Freedom
Presidential Medal of Freedom
The Presidential Medal of Freedom is an award bestowed by the President of the United States and is—along with thecomparable Congressional Gold Medal bestowed by an act of U.S. Congress—the highest civilian award in the United States...
by U.S. President George W. Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
.
Personal life
Paul Johnson has been married to the psychotherapist and former Labour Party parliamentary candidate Marigold Hunt since 1958. They have three sons and a daughter: the journalist Daniel JohnsonDaniel Johnson (journalist)
Daniel Benedict Johnson is a British journalist who is the founding editor of Standpoint.- Biography :After graduating with a First in Modern History from Magdalen College, Oxford, Johnson was awarded a Shakespeare Scholarship to Berlin...
, a freelance writer, editor of Standpoint
Standpoint (magazine)
Standpoint is a monthly British cultural and political magazine. Its premier issue was published at the end of May 2008 – the first launch of a major current affairs publication in the UK in more than a decade....
magazine, and previously associate editor of The Daily Telegraph who is married to the writer and birth educator Sarah Johnson nee Thompson; Luke Johnson, businessman and former chairman of Channel 4 Television; Cosmo Johnson; and Sophie Johnson-Clark, who has worked as a television script editor and now resides in the US and is married to the underground sportswriter and author Spike Vrusho (aka Mike Clark). Paul Johnson has ten grandchildren.
In 1998 it was revealed Johnson had an affair lasting eleven years with writer Gloria Stewart. Stewart went public with the affair to the newspapers after what she saw as Johnson’s hypocrisy over his views on morality, religion and family values and also asserted that Johnson liked erotic spanking
Erotic spanking
Erotic spanking is the act of spanking another person for the sexual arousal or gratification of either or both parties...
: "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." Johnson is a friend of British playwright Tom Stoppard
Tom Stoppard
Sir Tom Stoppard OM, CBE, FRSL is a British playwright, knighted in 1997. He has written prolifically for TV, radio, film and stage, finding prominence with plays such as Arcadia, The Coast of Utopia, Every Good Boy Deserves Favour, Professional Foul, The Real Thing, and Rosencrantz and...
, who dedicated his 1978 play Night and Day
Night and Day (play)
Night and Day is a 1978 play by Tom Stoppard. The sets and costumes were designed by Carl Toms and it ran for two years at the Phoenix Theatre in central London, UK. The lead roles of Richard Wagner and Ruth Carson were created by John Thaw and Diana Rigg, respectively.The play is post-colonial in...
to Johnson.
Johnson is a watercolourist, painting mainly landscapes, who has exhibited regularly.
Incomplete 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 HigginsHeather HigginsHeather Richardson Higgins is an American businesswoman, political commentator and non-profit sector executive. She is the president and CEO of Independent Women's Voice, the 501 sister organization of the Independent Women's Forum....
(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
- 2009 Churchill (biography, 192 pages)
Art & architecture
- 1980 British Cathedrals Weidenfeld & Nicolson ISBN 0297778285
- 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 [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
- 1983 A History of the Modern World from 1917 to the 1980s Weidenfeld & Nicholson
- 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 The History of the Jews [2001ed] Weidenfeld & Nicolson (later editions titled A History of the Jews)
- 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 PeopleA History of the American PeopleA History of the American People is a history book written by Paul Johnson, collaborating with Blake Almond. First published in Britain in 1997 and nearly 1,000 pages in length, the book presents a sweep of 400 years of American history from the late sixteenth century to the end of the twentieth...
Weidenfeld & Nicolson ISBN 0-06-093034-9 http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3724/is_199712/ai_n8772986 - 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
- 2007 Heroes HarperCollins Publishers (USA) ISBN 978-0-06-114316-8; ISBN 0-06-114316-2; HarperCollins Publishing link to book
Memoirs
- 2004 The Vanished Landscape: A 1930s Childhood in the Potteries Weidenfeld & Nicolson: ISBN 978-0753819333
- 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 ChristianityA History of Christianity (Paul Johnson)A History of Christianity is a historical study of the Christian religion written by British journalist and author Paul Johnson. The book was published in 1976 and aims to be a factual comprehensive history of the Christian religion...
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]
- 1984 The Aerofilms Book of London from the Air Weidenfeld & Nicolson
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)
External links
- 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
- Christopher Hitchens "The Rise and Fall of Paul "Spanker" Johnson", Salon.com, 28 May 1998
- White House press release regarding Presidential Medal of Freedom awarded to Johnson
- Paul Johnson's articles and interviews (English and Spanish)
- "In Depth with Paul Johnson", C-SpanC-SPANC-SPAN , an acronym for Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network, is an American cable television network that offers coverage of federal government proceedings and other public affairs programming via its three television channels , one radio station and a group of websites that provide streaming...
2 Book TV (February 7, 2010) - The Weekend Interview with Paul Johnson: Why America Will Stay on Top by Brian CarneyBrian Carney (editorialist)Brian M. Carney is an editor, journalist and member of the Wall Street Journal Editorial Board.Since August 2009, he has been living in London and serving as editorial page editor of The Wall Street Journal Europe. He is the coauthor, with Isaac Getz, of Freedom, Inc., When times are tough ...
(Wall Street Journal, March 5, 2011)
