Boris Johnson
Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (born June 19, 1964), better known as Boris Johnson, is a proudly Euro-sceptic, British right-wing journalist and Conservative Member of Parliament as well as the editor of the magazine The Spectator.
He was born in New York to Stanley Patrick Johnson and Charlotte Johnson. He was educated at Eton College, and Balliol College, Oxford, studying Classics. Showing early signs of political vocation, he was president of the Oxford Union. After working as a management consultant, he became a trainee reporter for The Times (1987), but was sacked for falsifying a quotation from his uncle. Following a short period as a writer for the Wolverhampton Express and Star He joined the Daily Telegraph in 1987 as leader and feature writer, and soon graduated to become EC correspondent (1989-94). Continuing with his rapid Telegraph success, he served as assistant editor (1994-99) but soon went to The Spectator as political columnist (1994-95). Despite a legendary disorganised lifestyle and tardiness with copy (indeed he once explained the lateness of his work by claiming that "Dark forces dragged me away from the keyboard, swirling forces of irresistible intensity and power") he advanced to assistant editor and political columnist for the Telegraph, holding the position from 1995 to 1999, when he was appointed editor of the Spectator. In 2000 he became Member of Parliament for Henley-upon-Thames, succeeding the outgoing Michael Heseltine. He married Marina Wheeler in 1993, and has two sons and two daughters.
He has appeared on Have I Got News For You three times, and once as guest presenter.
His autobiography is entitled Friends, Voters, Countrymen, Jottings on the Stump (Harper Collins, 2002).