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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. 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 {Link without Title} , 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 . {Link without Title} 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 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 '' 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 '''' 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 as a Heresy and defends Clerical Celibacy , but sees women priests as inevitable. {Link without Title} A hero of conservatives in the and General Pinochet {Link without Title} . 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. 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.[http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3724/is_200011/ai_n8922353 Johnson is regularly mocked in the liberal British press 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.[http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3724/is_199610/ai_n8735467 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 , businessman and chairman of Channel 4 Television and Cosmo James Johnson and also a daughter, Sophie, who has worked as a television script editor. OTHER REFERENCES
BIBLIOGRAPHY Johnson's books are listed by subject or type. The country of publication is the UK, unless stated otherwise. Anthologies, polemics & contemporary history
Art
History
Memoir
Novels
Religion
Travel
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