Stanley Johnson, like father, like son. Interview from 2009 about his book which is crammed with insights into the Johnson family psyche.
All the things people suspect of Boris are found to be true of his father, by his own account.
independent.co.uk/news/people/pr…
All the things people suspect of Boris are found to be true of his father, by his own account.
independent.co.uk/news/people/pr…
Stanley has fixated on overpopulation yet he’s not embarrassed about having 6 kids and just treats it as a bit of a joke. "The population explosion was taking place in the Third World."
The implication is that the planet should be jolly glad to have so many Johnsons.
The implication is that the planet should be jolly glad to have so many Johnsons.
Their money comes from an ancestor who left the family farm on Exmoor to find his fortune in the City of London. They have genetic links to Turkish politics and George II.
Stanley on his first night in prep school lying awake,
"listening to a boy in the next bed snivelling". His reaction? "Well, I'm sure I missed my mummy too, but that didn't seem to be the point."
A victim of the regular beatings by prefects as "some poor snivelling sod".
"listening to a boy in the next bed snivelling". His reaction? "Well, I'm sure I missed my mummy too, but that didn't seem to be the point."
A victim of the regular beatings by prefects as "some poor snivelling sod".
Stanley won't be called unsentimental. "On the contrary, I went to see Chariots of Fire and found myself in an effusion of tears."
And when a former schoolmate told him the headmaster abused some of the boys: "He never made a pass at me." Bad joke, Stanley realises it now.
And when a former schoolmate told him the headmaster abused some of the boys: "He never made a pass at me." Bad joke, Stanley realises it now.
Julia, one of his daughters, said: "As long as I can remember there have been cut-throat mealtime quizzes, fearsome ping-pong matches, height, weight and blondness contests and, of course, academic rivalry of mind-numbing magnitude." If anyone did well enough …
…. to come second, father would ask who was first. When his son Leo was captain of cricket at school, Dad captained a Fathers' XI. Leo came to the crease, full of pride. Stanley bowled him out first ball.
On philandering: Another friend blames Stanley for setting a bad example: "I'm saying that Boris got the idea you could walk all over females and didn't have to take their feelings into account."
Does Stanley feel overshadowed by his son, a better writer and politician than he? The response is pure Boris: the stare into the middle distance, the hand poised as if to make a point. 
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