Frank Johnson (journalist)
Frank Johnson | |
|---|---|
| Born | Frank Robert Johnson 20 January 1943 |
| Died | 15 December 2006 |
| Notable credit(s) | The Spectator The Daily Telegraph |
| Spouse | Virginia Fraser |
Frank Robert Johnson (20 January 1943 – 15 December 2006) was an English journalist.
Education
Johnson failed his Eleven Plus examination, and was educated at a state secondary school in Shoreditch in East London, which he left at the age of 16. Unlike many senior journalists of his time, he did not have a background in further or higher education, and instead, had taken a job as a 'messenger' on a national newspaper.[1]
Career
Early career
He was a junior reporter at the North-West Evening Mail in Barrow-in-Furness from 1965 to 1966. One of the duties of news staff was to cover sport, which was an unwelcome intrusion into the weekend. Johnson once reported the score of a Barrow rugby league match inaccurately and was robustly criticised by his editor on the Monday morning. However, he never had to cover sport again.
Later career
He was the editor of the conservative Spectator magazine from 1995 to 1999 and was a popular columnist for The Daily Telegraph. He had a particular reputation for his work as a parliamentary sketch writer, as which he was regarded by many as one of the most incisive and amusing commentators of his generation.
Personal life
He married Virginia Fraser, the widow of Simon Fraser, Master of Lovat, in 1998 who survives him. He died after a seven-year fight against cancer.[2]
References
- ^ Frank Johnson - Obituary The Independent newspaper. Retrieved 2 October 2011.
- ^ Frank Johnson dies telegraph.co.uk
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