DOES EVERY JOHNSON get a Boswell, an erudite, likeable fellow dedicated to telling their life story? Samuel got the original Boswell, and Lyndon got Robert Caro (four volumes in and still going). Boris has Andrew Gimson, whose 2006 biography, updated four times since, has become the standard reference text.
He’s now released a new tome on our ex-prime minister. Rather than a day-by-day account of the clown-car-on-fire that was Johnson’s time at the top, this is a series of essays on different aspects of the man and his life.
It’s in the style of Craig Brown’s histories of the Beatles and Princess Margaret, and works because the facts are sufficiently well known that they require no rehashing. The chapters are small and delightfully moreish.
Johnson is a
