already ‘somebody’ when I arrived at university. His sister Rachel — in the year below him — was his loudest cheerleader.
After Boris left Oxford, my family visited them at their farm in the West Country, Boris with his fiancée Allegra. Sitting around, discussing what to do next, Rachel announced they would write a book together, about how Oxford is a playpen for running the country.
The Johnsons had conquered Oxford and were now off to conquer the world. And nothing changed very much over the years.
Survivors: Stanley, Rachel, Boris and Jo
I’VE known Boris Johnson and his siblings since childhood because our fathers were friends. Each is clever and compelling in his or her own way, but they are also a tribe with a high level of Darwinian survival instincts.
This, I’m sure, comes from being brought up in one of the coldest houses in England (the last time I slept there, it actually snowed on my head in bed) and having to compete with each other. But they have chosen to keep close and form a sort of global elite, all their own.
As head of the Oxford Union, Boris was