Stanley Johnson (writer)

For other people named Stanley Johnson, see Stanley Johnson (disambiguation).

Stanley Patrick Johnson (born 18 August 1940) is a British politician and author, and a noted expert on environmental and population issues. He was a Conservative MEP for Wight & Hampshire East from 1979 to 1984 and is former employee of the World Bank and the European Commission. His eldest son, Boris Johnson, is the current Mayor of London.

Origins and early life

Johnson was born in 1940 in Penzance, Cornwall, the son of Osman Wilfred Johnson and Irene, daughter of Stanley F. Williams of Bromley, Kent, and Marie Louise (née de Pfeffel). His paternal grandfather Ali Kemal Bey, one of the last interior ministers of the Ottoman Empire government, was assassinated during the Turkish War of Independence. Stanley's father was born Osman Wilfred Kemal in England in 1909, his Anglo-Swiss mother Winifred dying shortly after giving birth. After Ali Kemal returned to Turkey in 1912, Stanley's father and aunt were brought up by their English grandmother Margaret Brun (née Johnson) and took her maiden name, Stanley's father becoming simply Wilfred Johnson.

Johnson attended Sherborne School, Dorset, and while still an undergraduate reading Greats at Exeter College, Oxford, he took part in the Marco Polo Expedition with Tim Severin and Michael de Larrabeiti, travelling on a motorcycle and sidecar from Oxford to Venice and on to India and Afghanistan. The adventure led to the publication of Severin's 1964 book Tracking Marco Polo with photographs by de Larrabeiti.

Work and interests

He has previously worked at the World Bank, has a great interest in the environment and was the Head of Prevention of Pollution Division at the European Commission from 1973-1979. He is a trustee of the Gorilla Organisation and a board member of Plantlife International. In 1983 he received the RSPCA Richard Martin Award for Outstanding Services to animal welfare and in 1984 he received the Greenpeace Award for Outstanding Services to the Environment.

He has published a number of books dealing with environmental issues and nine novels, including The Commissioner, which was made into a 1998 film starring John Hurt.

Recent activities

He attempted a political comeback in the United Kingdom general election, 2005, when he stood for the Conservative Party in the constituency of Teignbridge. He came second behind Richard Younger-Ross of the Liberal Democrats.

For a time, starting on 26 May 2005, he wrote a weekly column for the G2 section of The Guardian, and continues to write for various newspapers and magazines, often on environmental topics (see Stanley Johnson personal site below for details). He was one of the first regular hosts of the late night discussion programme The Last Word on Channel 4's More4 channel, and made an appearance on Have I Got News For You on 7 May 2004.

On 5 May 2008, it was reported that Johnson hoped to be selected to contest his son Boris's parliamentary seat of Henley for the Conservative Party. However, on 29 May, it was reported that the local Conservative party had chosen three local people as possible candidates and on 30 May, local councillor John Howell was selected to fight the by-election.

He has written an autobiographical memoir, Stanley I Presume, which was published in March 2009.

Personal life

Stanley Johnson married the painter Charlotte (née Fawcett, later Wahl) and with her had four children: Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London; Rachel Johnson, a journalist and former editor in chief of The Lady; Jo Johnson, Conservative MP for Orpington and Head of Lex at the Financial Times; and Leo Johnson, a film-maker and entrepreneur. He later married Jennifer Kidd and had two further children.

Works

• Gold Drain (1967, Heinemann) ISBN B0000CNKG6
• Panther Jones for President (1968, Heinemann) ISBN 0-434-37701-5
• Life without Birth: A Journey Through the Third World in Search of the Population Explosion (1970, Heinemann) ISBN 0-434-37702-3
• The Green Revolution (1972, Hamilton) ISBN 0-241-02102-2
• The Population Problem (1973, David & C) ISBN 0-7153-6282-8
• The Politics of Environment (1973, T Stacey) ISBN 0-85468-298-8
• The Urbane Guerilla (1975, Macmillan) ISBN 0-333-17679-0
• Pollution Control Policy of the EEC (1978, Graham & Trotman) ISBN 0-86010-136-3
• The Doomsday Deposit (1979, EP Dutton) ISBN 0-525-09468-7
• The Marburg Virus (1982, Heinemann) ISBN 0-434-37704-X
• Tunnel (1984, Heinemann) ISBN 0-434-37705-8
• Antarctica: The Last Great Wilderness (1985, Weidenfeld & N) ISBN 0-297-78676-8
• The Commissioner (1987, Century) ISBN 0-7126-1587-3
• Dragon River (1989, Frederick Muller) ISBN 0-09-173526-2
• The Earth Summit: The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) (1993, Kluwer Law International) ISBN 978-1-85333-784-0
• World Population - Turning the Tide (1994, Kluwer Law International) ISBN 1-85966-046-0
• The Environmental Policy of the European Communities (1995, Kluwer Law International) ISBN 90-411-0862-9
• The Politics of Population: Cairo, 1994 (1995, Earthscan) ISBN 1-85383-297-9
• Icecap (1999, Cameron May) ISBN 1-874698-67-8
• Stanley I Presume (2009, Fourth Estate Ltd) ISBN 0-00-729672-X
• Survival: Saving Endangered Migratory Species [co-authored with Robert Vagg] (2010, Stacey International) ISBN 1-906768-11-0

External links

• Stanley Johnson personal site
• Biographical Note, European Environment Agency
• Channel 4 Election Weblogs - Stanley Johnson
• The Guardian ruined my political career! Stanley Johnson's column May 26, 2005.
• Newspaper articles by Stanley Johnson

European Parliament
New constituency	Member of European Parliament for Wight and Hampshire East 1979 – 1984	Succeeded by Richard Simmonds