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Brief Lives
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.
296 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2010
3 people are currently reading
113 people want to read
About the author
Paul Johnson
134 books835 followersPaul Johnson works as a historian, journalist and author. He was educated at Stonyhurst School in Clitheroe, Lancashire and Magdalen College, Oxford, and first came to prominence in the 1950s as a journalist writing for, and later editing, the New Statesman magazine. He has also written for leading newspapers and magazines in Britain, the US and Europe.
Paul Johnson has published over 40 books including A History of Christianity (1979), A History of the English People (1987), Intellectuals (1988), The Birth of the Modern: World Society, 1815—1830 (1991), Modern Times: A History of the World from the 1920s to the Year 2000 (1999), A History of the American People (2000), A History of the Jews (2001) and Art: A New History (2003) as well as biographies of Elizabeth I (1974), Napoleon (2002), George Washington (2005) and Pope John Paul II (1982).
Paul Johnson has published over 40 books including A History of Christianity (1979), A History of the English People (1987), Intellectuals (1988), The Birth of the Modern: World Society, 1815—1830 (1991), Modern Times: A History of the World from the 1920s to the Year 2000 (1999), A History of the American People (2000), A History of the Jews (2001) and Art: A New History (2003) as well as biographies of Elizabeth I (1974), Napoleon (2002), George Washington (2005) and Pope John Paul II (1982).
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
December 7, 2020
For enjoyment I should really give this book 3 stars. But I am subtracting 1 star for some of the comments that I thought were unnecessary and nasty. One would expect better of an outspoken catholic. This book contradicts Paul Johnson's statement in a Telegraph interview : where he says "...my view increasingly is that if I don’t have anything good to say about somebody, I don’t say it." Well Mr Johnson, maybe you should practice what you preach?
It is a bit presumptuous of me to comment on this book, I am not English and have actually never heard of the majority of the people he describes. Many are now dead. I guess this book would appeal most to English people whose lives and careers overlapped with that of Paul Johnson. On the other hand, it provides a glimpse into a specific society and time.
In the introduction Paul Johnson gives a lovely summary on the history of biography and confesses that he pinched the name for this book from Thomas Hobbes. He says that
And so, instead of writing a chronicle of his own life he gives us his views on 250 famous people who crossed his path. This is a very personal memoir of someone who spent his life in London amidst the politicians and the printing presses and had a ring side seat at most of Britain's major dramas since WW II.
The book reads a bit like a Who's Who but with gossip. The comments on many of the political figures sometimes were a surprise to me. Maybe because they don't always fall in line with the public persona that I have of them. Paul Johnson says what he likes and tells us what he really thinks. I liked that.
I was surprised by what he wrote about Churchill, Eisenhower, Pinochet, Picasso and Dylan Thomas. He makes no bones about his appreciation for Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher and Tony Blair and offers some interesting anecdotes about them all. He knew Margaret Thatcher from their days as students at Oxford and claims to have given her advice on policy. In fact, he says that he predicted the election of Ronald Reagan as president and advised Margaret Thatcher to get a head start in forging relations with him. Although he is also fond of Tony Blair he mentions that Tony did not read much, recalling:
There is a surprisingly long entry on Princess Diana whose charm he clearly fell for. (He does seem to have a weakness for beautiful women). He claims to have given her some rudimentary lessons in English history as well as advice: 'No sex. No dealings with the media.' Did he really? He believes her to have had a genius gift for intuition.
I found it interesting whom he picked and whom left out. He mentions Diana at length, prince Charles not at all and has an entry for the present Queen merely to relate how he was once told by the Queen to 'shut up'. (Well, not literally 'shut up' but the Queen's English for 'shut up'.)
Many entries made me chuckle. For example, the one about the grown man who played with his toy soldier collection early each morning! The entry on Norman Mailer is one of the funniest in the book. And there is a hilarious quote of advice given to Johnson as a young boy. Paul got the opportunity to ask Churchill what he attributed his success to. The answer:-
And who cares how someone called Louis MacNice held his whisky glass and which finger he used when he smoked? But then, in the end, these are Paul Johnson's own fond memories.
It is a bit presumptuous of me to comment on this book, I am not English and have actually never heard of the majority of the people he describes. Many are now dead. I guess this book would appeal most to English people whose lives and careers overlapped with that of Paul Johnson. On the other hand, it provides a glimpse into a specific society and time.
In the introduction Paul Johnson gives a lovely summary on the history of biography and confesses that he pinched the name for this book from Thomas Hobbes. He says that
"We all like to hear about famous men and women. The more particular and personal the information the better"
And so, instead of writing a chronicle of his own life he gives us his views on 250 famous people who crossed his path. This is a very personal memoir of someone who spent his life in London amidst the politicians and the printing presses and had a ring side seat at most of Britain's major dramas since WW II.
The book reads a bit like a Who's Who but with gossip. The comments on many of the political figures sometimes were a surprise to me. Maybe because they don't always fall in line with the public persona that I have of them. Paul Johnson says what he likes and tells us what he really thinks. I liked that.
I was surprised by what he wrote about Churchill, Eisenhower, Pinochet, Picasso and Dylan Thomas. He makes no bones about his appreciation for Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher and Tony Blair and offers some interesting anecdotes about them all. He knew Margaret Thatcher from their days as students at Oxford and claims to have given her advice on policy. In fact, he says that he predicted the election of Ronald Reagan as president and advised Margaret Thatcher to get a head start in forging relations with him. Although he is also fond of Tony Blair he mentions that Tony did not read much, recalling:
Rebuked for not reading, he said 'I have got a book.' 'On what?' 'On the slave trade.' 'How far have you got?' 'Oh, a long way. I have finished Chapter One. I'm thinking of starting on Chapter Two.'
There is a surprisingly long entry on Princess Diana whose charm he clearly fell for. (He does seem to have a weakness for beautiful women). He claims to have given her some rudimentary lessons in English history as well as advice: 'No sex. No dealings with the media.' Did he really? He believes her to have had a genius gift for intuition.
I found it interesting whom he picked and whom left out. He mentions Diana at length, prince Charles not at all and has an entry for the present Queen merely to relate how he was once told by the Queen to 'shut up'. (Well, not literally 'shut up' but the Queen's English for 'shut up'.)
Many entries made me chuckle. For example, the one about the grown man who played with his toy soldier collection early each morning! The entry on Norman Mailer is one of the funniest in the book. And there is a hilarious quote of advice given to Johnson as a young boy. Paul got the opportunity to ask Churchill what he attributed his success to. The answer:-
Sometimes his urge to comment on someone means that he stretched his 'acquantance' with them a bit. He didn't know H.G. Wells, only his raincoat. E. M. Foster he only once saw from a distance in the rain.
Conservation of effort. Never stand up when you can sit down. And never sit down when you can lie.
And who cares how someone called Louis MacNice held his whisky glass and which finger he used when he smoked? But then, in the end, these are Paul Johnson's own fond memories.
November 2, 2020
Biography is an ancient branch of literature that attests to the unchangeability of human nature against the flow of time. In its literary context, the Bible, composed of 66 books, is about the prophets, kings, sinners, let alone Christ and his disciples. Homer's Odyssey and Iliad recite the ancient Greek heroes' honors and foibles during the Trojan War and the aftermath. Plutarch's Lives reveal the naked truth about the ancient Greek and Roman powers-that-be who seem to be no less different than their modern descendants in power. There are no other types of writing that are intuitively intriguing than an honest because a good biography gives the reader a sensation of reading a private diary or glimpsing behind-the façade moments of the person that lay bare the real persona of the subject person. In this ancient tradition of biography comes Paul Johnson's Brief Lives of the famous people he has met from all over the world told in episodic vignettes.
The book tells Johnson's reminiscences of historically notable personalities he has met directly and indirectly throughout his long journalistic career. Ernest Hemingway was not a Pooterish famed writer but a down-to-earth bon vivant with a love of wine. John Paul II was a true vicar of Christ gifted to our mad secular world. Princess Diana had incredible intuition, which was of prime kind channeled into high and low people's feelings. However, Pablo Picasso was the artist as rich as Croesus with the matching haughtiness. C.S. Lewis was an excellent lecturer whose populous lecture rooms were also an intellectual version of dating hippodrome. And Richard Nixon, regardless of his Watergate infamy, proved himself to be a diligent scholar of history with the admirable zeal of continuous learning. Johnson is a keen observer of people with a prism through which people's true colors are reflected. It is refreshingly educating to learn about the other, overlooked sides of the infamous and the famous without a gloss of the uniformed panegyrics or accusations, and doing justice to the publicly ill-informed.
It is also interesting to compare the book with Plutarch's Lives in terms of its episodic vignette form of writing, making both books more comfortable to read and stimulating to delve into. Johnson's episodes are vivaciously sprightful and wittily feisty, grasping the reader's attention from page to page with irresistible curiosity. Johnson and Plutarch use the ordinary language about the extraordinary to serve the purpose of writing biographies for the public with the knowledge about humankind that even the powerful and the beautiful are subject to anfractuous ridges that all humans have to climb in life.
I have read several books by Paul Johnson. All of them are packed full of his trademark wits, conservative but not chauvinistic perspectives on morality, and admirable erudition, thrown into a brilliant bonfire of words enjoyable by general readers. Brief Lives is no exception to the rule, showing that Johnson has ways with the words that make them vernacular in his choice of vocabulary he conjures and scholarly of the sentences he alloys. Samuel Johnson defined a good biography should disclose the person's human side to show that no one is perfect, powerful, and beautiful. Brief Lives of people echo the same.
The book tells Johnson's reminiscences of historically notable personalities he has met directly and indirectly throughout his long journalistic career. Ernest Hemingway was not a Pooterish famed writer but a down-to-earth bon vivant with a love of wine. John Paul II was a true vicar of Christ gifted to our mad secular world. Princess Diana had incredible intuition, which was of prime kind channeled into high and low people's feelings. However, Pablo Picasso was the artist as rich as Croesus with the matching haughtiness. C.S. Lewis was an excellent lecturer whose populous lecture rooms were also an intellectual version of dating hippodrome. And Richard Nixon, regardless of his Watergate infamy, proved himself to be a diligent scholar of history with the admirable zeal of continuous learning. Johnson is a keen observer of people with a prism through which people's true colors are reflected. It is refreshingly educating to learn about the other, overlooked sides of the infamous and the famous without a gloss of the uniformed panegyrics or accusations, and doing justice to the publicly ill-informed.
It is also interesting to compare the book with Plutarch's Lives in terms of its episodic vignette form of writing, making both books more comfortable to read and stimulating to delve into. Johnson's episodes are vivaciously sprightful and wittily feisty, grasping the reader's attention from page to page with irresistible curiosity. Johnson and Plutarch use the ordinary language about the extraordinary to serve the purpose of writing biographies for the public with the knowledge about humankind that even the powerful and the beautiful are subject to anfractuous ridges that all humans have to climb in life.
I have read several books by Paul Johnson. All of them are packed full of his trademark wits, conservative but not chauvinistic perspectives on morality, and admirable erudition, thrown into a brilliant bonfire of words enjoyable by general readers. Brief Lives is no exception to the rule, showing that Johnson has ways with the words that make them vernacular in his choice of vocabulary he conjures and scholarly of the sentences he alloys. Samuel Johnson defined a good biography should disclose the person's human side to show that no one is perfect, powerful, and beautiful. Brief Lives of people echo the same.
July 10, 2018
A first hand impressions of the many influential and famous people Johnson met. Witty, opinionated and refreshing.
November 17, 2022
Marvelous.
June 10, 2016
This book was bought to have something in which to dip at odd moments, but proved such a page-turner that is was read through in a couple of sessions.
The historian Paul Johnson has obviously lived a full life, especially in his earlier career as a journalist, and met a great many interesting, or at least famous, people – the famous not necessarily being the most interesting, and vice versa. He sums them up very neatly in short, journalistic articles, ranging from a single paragraph to several pages. This format makes the book very readable, as does the writing, which is pithy, perceptive, and personal.
Johnson wears his loves and hates on his sleeve. This could soon become very wearing, especially given the prejudices of most journalists, but Johnson's political journey across the political spectrum, from left to right, gives him a likeable tolerance and broad-mindedness. A book that praises both Aneurin Bevan and Margaret Thatcher shows a commendable ability to see different points of view which is, sadly, all too rare these days.
He also brings to his work a High Catholic sympathy for human weakness, an eye for the telling detail, and an ear for a good anecdote. He is often very funny, sometimes very moving, especially when writing about old friends.
There is, in general, a slight air of melancholy about the book as a whole. Although blessed by the by the great advantage of mixing with the political and literary Establishment in London, Paris, and the East Coast, that is balanced by the disadvantage of doing so at a time when the 'elite' was not especially elite. Many of the people he describes, great names in their day, have faded into obscurity very quickly.
Johnson is a fine chronicler, but one senses he misses having a better age to chronicle.
The historian Paul Johnson has obviously lived a full life, especially in his earlier career as a journalist, and met a great many interesting, or at least famous, people – the famous not necessarily being the most interesting, and vice versa. He sums them up very neatly in short, journalistic articles, ranging from a single paragraph to several pages. This format makes the book very readable, as does the writing, which is pithy, perceptive, and personal.
Johnson wears his loves and hates on his sleeve. This could soon become very wearing, especially given the prejudices of most journalists, but Johnson's political journey across the political spectrum, from left to right, gives him a likeable tolerance and broad-mindedness. A book that praises both Aneurin Bevan and Margaret Thatcher shows a commendable ability to see different points of view which is, sadly, all too rare these days.
He also brings to his work a High Catholic sympathy for human weakness, an eye for the telling detail, and an ear for a good anecdote. He is often very funny, sometimes very moving, especially when writing about old friends.
There is, in general, a slight air of melancholy about the book as a whole. Although blessed by the by the great advantage of mixing with the political and literary Establishment in London, Paris, and the East Coast, that is balanced by the disadvantage of doing so at a time when the 'elite' was not especially elite. Many of the people he describes, great names in their day, have faded into obscurity very quickly.
Johnson is a fine chronicler, but one senses he misses having a better age to chronicle.
June 18, 2014
Fun and interesting book. Johnson has a way with words and paints amazing frameworks for the stories he tells. He brings a unique story to already famous people, and makes those who are less famous quite interesting to read about. My only complaint is it had a "gossipy" feel to it, and I prefer to read biographies with a sense of propriety, knowing the author isn't taking cheap shots for unpleasant encounters in the past. Other than that, great read.
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July 29, 2016quite brilliant summary of the great and not so great in the UK
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews