Book description
In the course of a long and successful career as a journalist and
author, Paul Johnson has known popes, presidents, prime ministers,
painters, poets, playwrights, even the foul-mouthed publican Muriel
Belcher, who ran the legendary Colony Club. Harking back to the
scandalously anecdotal 17th century book by John Aubrey on the
celebrities of his times, Brief Lives is the distilled essence
of Johnson's experience of a complex variety of people who have
contributed to our political, spiritual and cultural life.
He advised Margaret Thatcher, counselled Princess Diana, had a
drawing of him done by Ernest Hemingway and enjoyed the company of
John Osborne, Arnold Wesker and Harold Pinter at Buckingham Palace. He
has been an insider, outside observer and universal commentator on the
individuals who have changed history, formed public taste or simply
lightened our lives by their presence.
Paul Johnson is a journalist, historian, speechwriter and author. He
came to prominence in the 50s writing for the
New Statesman
, where he was editor from 1965 - 1970. He then worked as a speechwriter
for Margaret Thatcher (with whom he was at Oxford) and wrote a weekly
column for the
Spectator
. He is married with two children and lives in London's Notting Hill
Gate. He has written many books, including A HISTORY OF THE MODERN
WORLD,1983, A HISTORY OF THE JEWS, 1987, and HEROES, 2007.
