Brief Lives - Softcover

Paul Johnson

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0099550253 ISBN 13: 9780099550259

Publisher: Arrow, 2011

Synopsis

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.

About this title

About the Author:

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.

Review:

"Where would the popes, presidents and princesses of the world be without Paul Johnson, the former editor of the New Statesman and much loved columnist in this and other periodicals? As his latest book shows, he is an all but indispensible asset, a social equivalent of the Admirable Crichton." -- A.N. Wilson Spectator "It all makes compulsive reading. For Johnson has not only a retentive memory - total recall, in fact - and a lively imagination, but also a great raconteur's gift for witty dialogue, rivalling that of Oscar Wilde ... Any historian of the last half of the 20th century - especially if he has if he has a taste for the comedie humaine - should read this book, if only to learn more about its author, the Thomas Carlyle of our age, who has played a life-enhancing part in history." New Statesman "Johnson's enthusiasm and industry are, as usual, prodigious" Sunday Times

About this edition

• Publisher: Arrow
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 0099550253
• ISBN 13: 9780099550259
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 304