A prolific writer, Johnson produced more than 50 books and numerous articles covering history, biography and travel. Writing more for audiences than critics, his subjects ranged from Jesus to the Beatles, with his titles including "The Birth of the Modern: World Society 1815-1830", "A History of the Modern World from 1917 to the 1980s", » and “The quest for God: a personal pilgrimage”.
Born on November 2, 1928, in Manchester, England, Johnson was educated at Stonyhurst College, a Jesuit primary and secondary school, and at Oxford University, where he met Thatcher and studied under the historian and left-wing journalist Taylor.
After graduating, Johnson served in the British Army, based primarily in Gibraltar. His military service allowed him to obtain a job at the Parisian periodical “Réalités” and he was later appointed Paris correspondent for the New Statesman, a British current affairs magazine. Johnson continued to work for the magazine upon his return to London and served as its editor from 1965 to 1970.
During the 1970s, Johnson became increasingly conservative in his outlook and began to champion Thatcher's message of less government and lower taxes.
“In the 1970s, Britain was on its knees. The left had no answers," Johnson wrote on his website explaining his decision. "I was disgusted by the overly powerful unions that were destroying Britain."
After Thatcher was elected prime minister in 1979, he advised her on legislation limiting the power of unions and became one of her speechwriters.
“I was immediately attracted to her,” Johnson recalls.
Johnson's views were sometimes controversial, as when he placed Lee Kwan Yew, the founder of modern Singapore, at the top of his list of the greatest political figures of the 20th century. Lee made Singapore one of the "richest, safest, most orderly and most sensible countries" in the world, Johnson wrote, ignoring those who criticized him as a tyrant who arbitrarily detained his opponents. On the same list, Johnson dismissed Nelson Mandela “under whose timid reign South Africa ran straight onto the rocks”.
This list appeared in the column Johnson wrote for The Spectator, a conservative British publication focused on politics and culture, from 1981 to 2009. He also wrote a column for the Daily Mail, a traditional supporter of the British Conservative Party , until 2001.
An anticommunist, he found Richard Nixon's behavior in the Watergate scandal less reprehensible than Bill Clinton's alleged perjury following allegations about his relationship with a White House intern.
But his conservative policies have won him fans on the American right. President George W. Bush awarded Johnson the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2006, saying his "powerful writings have captivated and educated people around the world."
"A citizen of the United Kingdom, he holds America in special esteem, calling the founding of our nation 'the greatest of all human adventures,'" Bush said.
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