Rachel Johnson

Rachel Sabiha Johnson was born on September 3, 1965. She is a British journalist, television presenter, and author. Johnson has participated in various political discussion panels, including "The Pledge" on Sky News and "Question Time" on BBC One. In January 2018, she was a contestant on the 21st series of "Celebrity Big Brother," where she was evicted second.

In the realm of politics, Johnson was the lead candidate for Change UK in the South West England constituency during the 2019 European Parliament election.

**Early Life and Family Background**

Johnson is the daughter of former Conservative Member of the European Parliament (MEP) Stanley Johnson and artist Charlotte Johnson Wahl (née Fawcett). Her elder brother is Boris Johnson, the former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Conservative Member of Parliament for Uxbridge and South Ruislip. She has a younger brother, Jo Johnson, who served as the Conservative MP for Orpington.

On her paternal side, Johnson is a great-granddaughter of Ali Kemal, a liberal Circassian-Turkish journalist and the interior minister in Damat Ferid Pasha's government, who was assassinated during the Turkish War of Independence in 1922. During World War I, her grandfather and great-aunt were recognized as British subjects and adopted their grandmother's maiden name, Johnson.

Her maternal grandfather was Sir James Fawcett, a distinguished barrister and president of the European Commission of Human Rights. Johnson's middle name, Sabiha, translates to "morning" in Arabic and was the name of the second wife of her great-grandfather Ali Kemal. She is also connected to Zeki Pasha, a notable figure in her family history.

Her paternal half-uncle was Zeki Kuneralp, who served as Turkish ambassador to the United Kingdom during the 1960s and was a friend of her father.

**Education**

Johnson attended multiple schools in her youth, including Winsford First School on Exmoor, Primrose Hill Primary in Camden, north London, the European School of Brussels, Ashdown House School in East Sussex, Bryanston School in Dorset, and St Paul's Girls' School. In 1984, she volunteered for three months at a kibbutz before enrolling at New College, Oxford, where she studied Classics (Literae Humaniores). At Oxford, she served as an editor for the student publication Isis.

**Career in Journalism and Media**

Johnson joined the staff of the Financial Times in 1989 as the first female graduate trainee, focusing on economic reporting. She undertook a secondment to the Foreign Office Policy Planning Staff during 1992-93. In 1994, she transitioned to the BBC and later moved to Washington, D.C., in 1997 to work as a columnist and freelancer.

She has contributed columns to various publications, including The Sunday Telegraph, The Daily Telegraph, the Evening Standard, Easy Living, She magazines, and the Financial Times. Johnson has also served as a contributing editor for The Spectator, and until 2009, she was a weekly columnist for The Sunday Times and the Evening Standard. Currently, she writes weekly columns for The Mail on Sunday, The Big Issue, and The Oldie.

In 2014, she participated as a judge in the BBC Woman's Hour Power List. Johnson has served on the boards of Bright Blue, a Tory think-tank focused on modernizing conservatism, and Intelligence Squared, an international debate forum. She appeared on "Famous, Rich and Hungry" on BBC1 in March 2014 and was a regular panelist on Sky News's debate show "The Pledge," which was suspended in 2020.

**Editorial and Literary Work**

In September 2009, Johnson became the editor of "The Lady," a weekly magazine established in 1885. Her initial tenure was documented in the Channel 4 program "The Lady and the Revamp," which was shortlisted for a Grierson Award. She was succeeded by Matt Warren as editor in January 2012.

Johnson presented a documentary titled "How to Be a Lady: An Elegant History" for BBC Four in March 2013. She authored "Shire Hell," which received the 2008 Bad Sex in Fiction Prize. Her short story "Severely Gifted" was published in The Sunday Times in December 2008.

**Political Affiliations**

Johnson was a member of the Conservative Party from 2008 until 2011 but joined the Liberal Democrats before the 2017 general election, primarily due to her opposition to Brexit. She considered running as a Liberal Democrat candidate in the West Country but was barred due to party membership duration requirements. In April 2019, she joined Change UK, an anti-Brexit party, and was the lead candidate for the South West in the 2019 European Parliament election. She later expressed regret over this decision, describing her involvement as "the rat that jumped onto a sinking ship," and criticized the party's decision-making approach and its name.

**Personal Life**

Johnson is married to Ivo Dawnay, a descendant of William Dawnay, 7th Viscount Downe, and grandson of Patrick Boyle, 8th Earl of Glasgow. Dawnay is a director and consultant with the National Trust. They have three children and reside in Notting Hill, London, as well as Exmoor, Somerset.

**Selected Bibliography**

- The Oxford Myth (1988)

- The Mummy Diaries (2004)

- Notting Hell (2006)

- Shire Hell (2008)

- In A Good Place (2009)

- A Diary of The Lady, My First Year as Editor (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 and External Links**

(Note: References section omitted for brevity. External links include her IMDb profile, podcast appearances, discussions on her novels, and social media profiles.)