Rachel Johnson Popular Books
Rachel Johnson Biography & Facts
Rachel Sabiha Johnson (born 3 September 1965) is a British journalist, television presenter, and author who has appeared frequently on political discussion panels, including The Pledge on Sky News and BBC One's debate programme, Question Time. In January 2018, she participated in the 21st series of Celebrity Big Brother and was evicted second. She was the lead candidate for Change UK for the South West England constituency in the 2019 European Parliament election. Early life and education Johnson is the daughter of former Conservative MEP Stanley Johnson and artist Charlotte Johnson Wahl (née Fawcett). She is the younger sister of Boris Johnson, the former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Conservative MP for Uxbridge and South Ruislip; and the elder sister of Jo Johnson, former Conservative MP for Orpington. On her father's side, Johnson is a great-granddaughter of Ali Kemal, a liberal Circassian-Turkish journalist and the interior minister in the government of Damat Ferid Pasha, Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire, who was murdered during the Turkish War of Independence in 1922. During the First World War, her grandfather and great-aunt were recognised as British subjects and took their grandmother's maiden name of Johnson. On her mother's side she is a granddaughter of Sir James Fawcett, a prominent barrister and president of the European Commission of Human Rights. Johnson's middle name, Sabiha, means "morning" in Arabic and is often used as a given name in Turkey. It was the name of the second wife of her great-grandfather, Ali Kemal, who was a daughter of Zeki Pasha. Stanley Johnson befriended his paternal half-uncle Zeki Kuneralp, Sabiha's son, when Kuneralp was Turkish ambassador to the Court of St James's in the 1960s. She was educated at Winsford First School on Exmoor, Primrose Hill Primary in Camden, north London, the European School of Brussels, the independent Ashdown House School in East Sussex, Bryanston School in Dorset and St Paul's Girls' School. In 1984 she spent three months as a kibbutz volunteer and then went to New College, Oxford, to read Classics (Literae Humaniores); there she edited the student paper Isis. Journalism career In 1989 she joined the staff of the Financial Times, becoming the first female graduate trainee at the paper, where she wrote about the economy. She spent a year on secondment to the Foreign Office Policy Planning Staff in 1992–93. She moved to the BBC in 1994, but left to move to Washington, D.C., as a columnist and freelancer in 1997. She has written weekly columns for The Sunday Telegraph, The Daily Telegraph, the Evening Standard and other regular columns for Easy Living and She magazines, as well as the Financial Times. She is a contributing editor of The Spectator and until 2009 was a weekly columnist on The Sunday Times and the Evening Standard, among other publications. She now writes a weekly column in The Mail on Sunday, a column for The Big Issue and a column for The Oldie. In April 2014 she was a judge in the BBC Woman's Hour power list 2014. She sits on the boards of Bright Blue, the modernising Tory think-tank, and Intelligence Squared, the international debate forum. In March 2014 she appeared in Famous, Rich and Hungry on BBC1. She is a former panellist on Sky News' weekly debate show, The Pledge, production of which was suspended in 2020. The Lady In September 2009, Johnson became the ninth editor of The Lady, a weekly magazine established in 1885. Her first few months were the subject of a Channel 4 documentary entitled The Lady and the Revamp; this was nominated for a Grierson Award. She was replaced as editor by Matt Warren in January 2012. In March 2013 she presented an hour-long documentary for BBC Four entitled How to Be a Lady: An Elegant History. Literary career Johnson's Shire Hell won the 2008 Bad Sex in Fiction Prize, which she described as being an "absolute honour". Her short story "Severely Gifted" appeared in The Sunday Times on 21 December 2008. Political career Johnson was a member of the Conservative Party from 2008 to 2011, but later joined the Liberal Democrats in the run up to the 2017 general election because of the Conservative support for Brexit. Johnson then considered becoming a Lib Dem candidate in a seat in the West Country, but was barred under the party's rules, having been a member for less than a year. In April 2019, she joined the new anti-Brexit party Change UK and was the lead candidate on the party list in South West England at the 2019 European Parliament election. She later lamented this decision, describing herself as the "rat that jumped onto a sinking ship" and criticised the party leadership's focus-group attitude to decision-making structure and added that Change UK was a "terrible" name. Personal life Johnson is married to Ivo Dawnay, a descendant of William Dawnay, 7th Viscount Downe, and maternal grandson of Patrick Boyle, 8th Earl of Glasgow. Dawnay is a director and consultant with the National Trust. They have three children. Johnson lives in Notting Hill in London and Exmoor, Somerset. Bibliography The Oxford Myth (Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1988) The Mummy Diaries (Penguin, 2004) Notting Hell (Penguin, 2006) Shire Hell (2008) In A Good Place (2009) A Diary of The Lady, My First Year as Editor (Penguin, 2010) A Diary of The Lady, My first Year and a Half (2011) Winter Games (2012) Fresh Hell (2015) Rake's Progress: My Political Midlife Crisis (2020) Rake's Progress: The Madcap True Tale of My Political Midlife Crisis (2021) References External links Rachel Johnson at IMDb Authors On Tour Live Podcast Johnson discusses her novel Notting Hell How To Be A Lady: An Elegant History with Rachel Johnson Rachel Johnson on Twitter Rachel Johnson on LBC. Discover the Rachel Johnson popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Rachel Johnson books.
Best Seller Rachel Johnson Books of 2024
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Malina
Ingeborg Bachmann & Philip BoehmNow a New Directions book, the legendary novel that is “equal to the best of Virginia Woolf and Samuel Beckett” (New York Times Book Review) In Malina, originally publish...
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My Teenage Diary
Harriet JaineEver wanted to pick the lock of a celebrity’s teenage diary?My Teenage Diary is a Radio 4 comedy show hosted by Rufus Hound featuring celebrities reading and discussing extracts fr...
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Keir Starmer
Tom BaldwinTHE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER'This will be the most important political book of the year’ MATTHEW D’ANCONA, EVENING STANDARD 'The first serious and consistently readable biography of...
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The Secrets of Hawthorn Place
Jenni Keer'This is definitely up there as one of the best books that I have read. It's got a special place in my heart. Just amazing!' 5 reader review'Gorgeous! Exuberant writing, convincing...
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Chasing the Italian Dream
Jo ThomasFrom the bestselling author of Escape to the French Farmhouse comes a deliciously feelgood story about making your dreams come true, set in sunkissed southern Italy.'A tale full of...
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Wedding Bells at the Signal Box Cafe
Annette Hannah'Brimming with friendship and romance, this lovely book will charm your heart' Milly JohnsonFall in love with this heartwarming and emotional romcom, perfect for fans of Rebecca Ra...
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Four Minutes to Save a Life
Anna StuartWhen supermarket delivery driver Charlie is assigned the Hope Row street, he realises there are a lot of lonely people out there and for some, he's their only interaction. The sup...
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Death on the Aisle
Kate JohnsonFirst comes love, then comes murder... Molly Higgins is getting marriedbut of course nothing is going to plan! Marrying a celebrity brings with it a huge number of headaches no mat...
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The Little Cottage in Lantern Square
Helen RolfeLooking for a fresh start? Welcome to Butterbury... A delightfully heartwarming story, perfect for fans of Holly Hepburn and Cathy BramleyStep into the magic of Lantern Square... H...
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My Family and Other Strangers
Jeremy HardyWhen Jeremy Hardy decided to explore his ancestry it was, in part, to get to the bottom of his grandmother Rebecca's dubious claims that the family descended from a certain 17thcen...
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Lust at First Bite
Various ArtistsAn arousing collection of short stories about the sexiest spectre of them all the Vampire.The vampire's reputation has enjoyed a massive resurrection in fiction in recent years. B...
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Wycliffe And The Last Rites
W.J. BurleyThe Cornish Detective seriesA puzzling murder mystery. A tough new case for Detective Wycliffe to investigate.'You can always count on Wycliffe' FINANCIAL TIMES'GRIPPING' THE TIME...
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The Confessions of an English Slave
Yolanda CelbridgeIntroduced to the joys of barebottom discipline by lustful ladies, naval cadet Philip Demesne, posted to the Far East, painfully learns true submission from the voluptuous dominatr...
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All Men Want to Know
Nina Bouraoui & Aneesa Abbas Higgins'Intense, gorgeous, troubling, seductive a novel that has to be surrendered to rather than read' Sarah Waters AN INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLERWINNER OF AN ENGLISH PEN TRANSLATES AWARD ...
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WorkParty
Jaclyn JohnsonFirst, we leaned in. Now we stand up.In this “muchneeded combo of real talk, confessions, and lessons learned along the way” (Chelsea Handler), Jaclyn Johnsonthe founder and CEO be...
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Wycliffe And The Redhead
W.J. BurleyThe Cornish Detective seriesThe discovery of a body in a quarry creates a baffling case for Detective Superintendent Wycliffe'Firstclass, oldtime, hyperingenious whodunit' OBSERVER...
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The Family Gift
Cathy Kelly'Honest, funny, clever, it sparkles with witty, wry observations on modern life. I loved it' Marian KeyesAn uplifting story about one mother trying to hold it all together told wi...
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Old Sins
Penny VincenziPOWERTwo clever, stylish and ambitious women are fighting for control of a multimillion cosmetics empire. MYSTERYWhat is the secret that lies behind its charming, ruthless creator,...
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Life Inside My Mind
Jessica Burkhart“Who better to raise teens’ awareness of mental illness and health than the YA authors they admire?” Booklist (starred review)“[A] muchneeded, enlightening book.” School Library Jo...
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Wife in the North
Judith O'ReillyHow far would you go to be the perfect mother? The hilarious Wife in the North by Judith O'Reilly, based on her enormously popular blog, recounts one woman's attempt to move her fa...
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The Year of Surprising Acts of Kindness
Laura Kemp'Witty, Warm, and Wonderful. I loved it!' Milly JohnsonSometimes all it takes to make the world a better place is a small act of kindness...'A truly wonderful and heartwarming read...
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Brat
Penny BirchNatasha Linnet is the perfect modern girl single successful, independent and capable of putting men in their place with a single word. Yet she has a single desire, and not one tha...
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Limitless
Leah TinariIn the spirit of She Persisted, Goodnight Stories for Rebel Girls, and Rad American AZ, acclaimed artist Leah Tinari offers a spectacular collection of portraits, celebrating iconi...
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The Fat Chance Guide to Dieting
Claudia PattisonThink nothing tastes as good as slim feels? You're obviously not eating the right food . . .Holly, Naomi and Kate are determined to win the battle of the bulge. So it's down to the...
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A Different Sky
Meira ChandSingapore a trading post where different lives jostle and mix. It is 1927, and three young people are starting to question whether this inbetween island can ever truly be their ho...
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No Roses Round The Door
K M PeytonTom and Jo are the perfect professional couple, and think they have it all. But when Tom starts to think that he wants to be a father, and Jo can't bear the thought of sacrific...
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Herstory
Katherine HalliganMove aside historyit’s time for herstory.Celebrate fifty inspiring and powerful women who changed the world and left their mark in this lavishly illustrated biography compilation t...
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Rivals
Jilly Cooper OBEWho will take the Cotswold Crown?Into the cutthroat world of Corinium television comes Declan O'Hara, a megastar of great glamour and integrity with a radiant feckless wife, a hand...
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Barefoot Over Stones
Liz LyonsWhat would it take to destroy your closest friendship?Alison and Ciara meet at college in Dublin and soon become firm allies, sharing a flat and facing the world together. Ciara is...
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Sugar Daddy Diaries
Helen CroydonFrustrated with her stalled career as a broadcast journalist and uninspired by dating naive and needy guys her own age, Helen Croydon joins a website to seek an older man. She expe...
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Wycliffe and the Beales
W.J. BurleyA mysterious death ... an eccentric family living on the edge of Dartmoor ... And Chief Superintendent Wycliffe has one of his most complex cases to date.The Cornish Detective seri...
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Silent Spring Revolution
Douglas BrinkleyNew York Times bestselling author and acclaimed presidential historian Douglas Brinkley chronicles the rise of environmental activism during the Long Sixties (19601973), telling th...
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Single for the Summer
Mandy BaggotA fun, feelgood romantic comedy to read on the beach this summer, from Queen of Greek romance Mandy Baggot.Tess Parks has made up her mind: love isn’t for her.When it comes to dati...
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All the Hearts You Eat
Hailey PiperA visceral and heartbreaking work of gothic horror about small town mysteries, local folklore and the things we leave behind when we're gone, from the Bram Stoker Award winning aut...
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The Hard Crowd
Rachel KushnerNow includes a new essay, “Naked Childhood,” about Kushner’s family, their converted school bus, and the Summers of Love in Oregon and San Francisco!“The Hard Crowd is wild, widera...
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Pictures at an Exhibition
Camilla Macpherson'An enchanting debut' Woman's OwnNovember 1942Dear Elizabeth, I've got myself a new project, to cheer myself up a bit. It has absolutely nothing to do with the war effort. We're co...
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The Things We Thought We Knew
Mahsuda SnaithTen years ago, two girls’ lives changed forever.Now one of them is ready to tell their story.'A quirky lovable mystery and a brilliant, heartbreaking debut' Stylist'A new face of f...
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Christmas at the Village Sewing Shop
Helen Rolfe'The perfect festive read!' DEBBIE JOHNSON 'Full of festive spirit and intriguing family secrets!' HEIDI SWAINCan three sisters stitch their family back together? Loretta loves run...
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The New Beginnings Bridal Boutique
Kellie Hailes'You know for an owner of a bridal shop you're awfully cynical about marriage.'As the owner of a secondhand bridal boutique in the little village of Alfriston, Paige Alby has seen ...
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The Garden of Lost and Found
Harriet EvansDon't miss the STUNNING new novel from Sunday Times bestselling author, Harriet Evans THE BELOVED GIRLS is available to buy now!'Spellbinding' Independent'My top book of 2019' DI...
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Cloak of War
Rhonda MasonThe bloody tournament to determine the new empress of the intergalactic empire may be over, but for exiled princess Kayla Reinumon, the battle is just beginning. To free her home p...
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If Not Now ...
Denyse DevlinJust when she has resigned herself to being alone longterm, Marina Ffench, a widow in her forties, meets a man and falls in love all over again. A midlife relationship, she thinks,...
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The Wildflowers
Harriet Evans'I adored The Wildflowers. A sweeping, epic, moving read' Marian KeyesThe new novel by Sunday Times bestseller Harriet Evans will transport you to a Dorset beach house, where you c...
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Underworld
Maria Del ReyBehind a facade of professional respectability, a certain group of wealthy individuals is playing some very adult games. Games of master and servant where willing submissive suffe...