Stanley's Books
Stanley I Presume
Published March 19th 2009
 A rip-roaring and hilarious memoir from Stanley Johnson - father of London mayor Boris Johnson. Stanley's story begins with a loud bang - when his father, an RAF pilot in the Second World War, crash-lands a Wellington bomber on a Devon airfield. A few years later Stanley's parents buy a sheep farm on nearby Exmoor, where Stanley does much of his growing up. Stanley would keep his links with this much-loved rural idyll throughout his life - while going on to become an explorer, author, occasional politician and also one of the world's first environmentalists. A sparkling raconteur and experienced thriller writer, in Stanley I Presume great stories are told in great style.
On leaving school in 1958 Stanley travelled alone through South America - hitching rides across the jungle on Brazilian Air Force planes - and shortly afterwards he rode a motorcycle 4,000 miles from London to Afghanistan, tracing the route of Marco Polo with two friends. After winning Oxford University's poetry prize with a love poem - written following a hilltop tryst in the West Country - Stanley went on to do various adventurous jobs, before working for the billionaire John D Rockefeller 3rd, the World Bank, the United Nations and the European Union.
Stanley married and started a family young - Boris was born in New York when his father was 23 - and while Boris would go on to become big news, the family's forbears also provide quite a story, as Stanley finds out. For the Johnson family's roots are not just in the West Country, but in Turkey too - where, as Stanley discovers, his politician grandfather Ali Kemal was torn to pieces by an angry mob. Stanley visits a Turkish village where the locals are blonde - later he learns that he and Boris are direct descendants of George II.
Stanley I Presume
Advance Reviews
"A wonderful jaw-dropping account of a rollercoaster life. Johnson senior does not disappoint... the book is a triumph" - ANNE ROBINSON
"Poet, explorer, irresistibly funny... This lovely book reflects its author's delightful personality" - ESTHER RANTZEN
"Boris has done for Livingstone; now it's Stanley's turn. There's no-one I'd rather go into the jungle with" - JOAN BAKEWELL
"From the early days of running across a mat of spring flowers at the stadium at Olympia, to a standing ovation at the Berlin Film Festival, via the politics and people of his time, Stanley Johnson's life sparkles with a joy of living. He writes with the wit and humour of a true raconteur. Stanley, I Presume, is a fascinating read of a fascinating life" - ZOE WANAMAKER
"Stanley I Presume is funny and engaging. It reveals not only the person but also his many talents, passions and adventures, from novelist to secret service agent, poet to population activist and explorer to Eurocrat. And it also reveals why the Mayor of London is called Boris" - TONY JUNIPER
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