Christopher Booker

Christopher Booker
Born	Christopher John Penrice Booker (1937-10-07) 7 October 1937 England
Died	3 July 2019(2019-07-03) (aged 81)
Occupation(s)	Journalist, writer, columnist
Years active	1960s–2019
Known for	Co-founder and first editor of Private Eye; columnist for The Sunday Telegraph; author of The Real Global Warming Disaster
Notable work	The Real Global Warming Disaster, The Great Deception, The Seven Basic Plots

Christopher John Penrice Booker (7 October 1937 – 3 July 2019) was a distinguished English journalist and writer, recognized as the co-founder and inaugural editor of the satirical publication Private Eye in 1961. Beginning in 1990, he contributed as a columnist to The Sunday Telegraph. In 2009, he authored The Real Global Warming Disaster. Booker was also known for questioning the purported connections between passive smoking and cancer, as well as scrutinizing the risks associated with asbestos. His columns in The Sunday Telegraph frequently examined issues concerning the UK Family Courts and Social Services.

Together with Richard North, Booker produced multiple works advocating a Eurosceptic viewpoint on the European Union, most notably The Great Deception. While this book has faced academic criticism, it has had a significant impact on popular historical narratives.

Early life

Booker received his education at the Dragon School, followed by Shrewsbury School, and later studied History at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge.

1960s

In 1961, along with fellow former Salopians Richard Ingrams and Willie Rushton, Booker co-established Private Eye, becoming its first editor until he was replaced by Ingrams in 1963. He rejoined the magazine in 1965 and continued to contribute as part of its collaborative writing team until his passing.

During his university years, Booker wrote jazz critiques for The Daily Telegraph and between 1961 and 1964 contributed to The Sunday Telegraph. In 1962, he took on the role of political scriptwriter for the BBC satire That Was The Week That Was, crafting memorable sketches that targeted political leaders such as Home Secretary Henry Brooke and Prime Minister Sir Alec Douglas-Home.

Starting in 1964, Booker became a columnist for Spectator, focusing on media and television topics. His 1969 publication, The Neophiliacs: A Study of the Revolution in English Life in the Fifties and Sixties, offered a critical examination of fantasy’s influence within politics and society. He was married to novelist Emma Tennant from 1963 until their divorce in 1968.

1970s

In 1972, Booker wed Christine Verity. He actively opposed modernist urban redevelopment projects and the construction of tower blocks across Britain. Alongside Candida Lycett Green, he co-wrote Goodbye London in 1973 and was honored as IPC Campaigning Journalist of the Year alongside Bennie Gray. Booker also produced the BBC documentary City of Towers in 1979, which explored modernist architecture.

Throughout the mid-1970s, he created a quiz segment for Melvyn Bragg’s BBC literary show Read All About It, resumed weekly contributions to The Spectator from 1976 to 1981, and served as a principal book reviewer for The Sunday Telegraph. In 1979, he married Valerie Patrick; together they had two sons and resided in Somerset.

1980s

In 1980, he released The Seventies: Portrait Of A Decade and reported on the 1980 Moscow Olympics for the Daily Mail. The following year, he authored The Games War: A Moscow Journal. From 1987 until 1990, he contributed the The Daily Telegraph column titled The Way of the World under the pseudonym "Peter Simple II". In 1990, he exchanged positions with Auberon Waugh to become a weekly columnist for The Sunday Telegraph, a role he held until March 2019.

Between 1986 and 1990, he took part in an inquiry led by Brigadier Tony Cowgill investigating accusations that prominent British politicians, including Harold Macmillan, were involved in war crimes related to the handover of Cossack and Yugoslav prisoners to Communist forces in 1945. The resulting 1990 report altered the prevailing interpretation of these incidents, which he later explored in detail in his 1997 work, A Looking Glass Tragedy.

After 1990

Starting in 1992, his attention turned toward British administrative regulation and the European Union, working alongside Richard North. Together, they authored several books such as The Mad Officials: How The Bureaucrats Are Strangling Britain (1994); The Castle of Lies (1996); The Great Deception (2003), a critical examination of EU history; and Scared To Death: From BSE To Global Warming, Why Scares Are Costing Us The Earth (2007), which scrutinizes the consequences of societal fears.

In 2004, he published The Seven Basic Plots: Why We Tell Stories, a Jungian-inspired study of narrative structures developed over three decades. While some reviewers criticized its formulaic approach to plotting, others acknowledged its valuable insights. Fay Weldon described it as "extraordinary" and transformative for narrative understanding, and Roger Scruton regarded it as a "brilliant summary of story-telling."

Views

Booker’s weekly contributions to The Sunday Telegraph covered a broad range of topics relevant to public interest. British commentator James Delingpole commended Booker in The Spectator for embodying traditional journalistic principles: rigorous investigation, comprehensive analysis, championing marginalized voices, and fearless honesty.

Regarding health matters, Booker contended in his book Scared to Death that public anxieties about asbestos, passive smoking, and BSE have been exaggerated. His writings on climate change attracted criticism from George Monbiot of The Guardian.

Booker asserted that white asbestos is "chemically identical to talcum powder" and presents a "non-existent" health hazard, referencing a 2000 Health and Safety Executive (HSE) report. He claimed HSE research determined the risk as "virtually zero". Nevertheless, HSE’s Director General Timothy Walker described Booker’s asbestos articles as "misinformed" and detrimental to public comprehension. The HSE issued additional rebuttals to his assertions in both 2005 and 2006.

In May 2008, Booker again cited the Hodgson and Darnton study to argue that mesothelioma risk from white asbestos cement was "insignificant" and lung cancer risk was "zero". This article drew criticism from the HSE as being "substantially misleading" and from Monbiot for distorting the study's conclusions. Richard Wilson’s 2008 publication Don't Get Fooled Again also scrutinized Booker’s claims critically, highlighting his support for John Bridle, who had been convicted under the UK's Trade Descriptions Act for fraudulent qualification claims.

Global warming

Booker condemned the Climate Change Act 2008, labeling it as "the costliest legislation ever enacted by Parliament," with estimated expenses reaching into the hundreds of billions over four decades. In May 2009, he addressed an International Conference on Climate Change hosted by The Heartland Institute. Later that year, in autumn 2009, he released his bestselling work The Real Global Warming Disaster, contending that no genuine consensus exists regarding climate change and warning that governmental attempts to address it "will prove to be among the most costly, damaging, and misguided errors humanity has ever committed."

Philip Ball of The Observer characterized the book as "the definitive handbook for climate sceptics," highlighting its unopposed critiques of established climate science. Ball observed that Booker's argument compels readers to believe either that the majority of climate scientists have fabricated the idea of anthropogenic global warming or that they are all profoundly inept, yet coincidentally converge on identical findings.

In December 2009, Booker together with Richard North authored a piece in The Sunday Telegraph questioning whether Rajendra Pachauri, chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), exploited his role for personal advantage. A subsequent article followed in January 2010. On 21 August 2010, The Daily Telegraph retracted the original article, issued an apology, and reportedly covered legal costs amounting to six figures. Pachauri dismissed the accusations as "another attempt by climate sceptics to undermine the IPCC’s credibility."

Family courts

Booker frequently wrote about issues within the Family Court system of England and Wales, notably backing Victoria Haigh, which escalated his disputes with judicial authorities. He also championed Marie Black, who escaped the UK with her partner and daughter to evade intervention by social services.

Death

Booker passed away on 3 July 2019. On 12 July, he was commemorated on BBC Radio 4’s obituary programme Last Word.

Bibliography

• The Neophiliacs: A Study of the Revolution in English Life in the Fifties and Sixties (1969)
• Goodbye London (co-authored with Candida Lycett Green) (1979)
• The Seventies: Portrait Of A Decade (1980)
• The Games War: A Moscow Journal (1981)
• The Mad Officials: How The Bureaucrats Are Strangling Britain (with Richard North, 1994)
• The Castle of Lies: Why Britain Must get Out of Europe (with Richard North, 1996)
• A Looking-Glass Tragedy. The Controversy Over The Repatriations From Austria in 1945, London, Gerald Duckworth & Co Ltd, First Edition (1997)
• The Great Deception (with Richard North, 2003), London: Continuum Publishing
• The Seven Basic Plots: Why We Tell Stories (2004)
• Scared To Death: From BSE To Global Warming, Why Scares Are Costing Us The Earth (with Richard North, 2007), London: Continuum
• Climategate to Cancun: The Real Global Warming Disaster Continues... (with Richard North, 2010), London: Continuum
• The Real Global Warming Disaster, Continuum International Publishing Group Ltd (2009)
• Groupthink: A Study in Self Delusion (2020), London: Bloomsbury

External links

• Christopher Booker on telegraph.co.uk