A Roving Eye

R.W. Johnson’s articles and essays are endlessly copied and recirculated, not just in Southern Africa but far more widely—not only because of their acuity, but because of his exceptional range of interests.

As a former Oxford don and prolific contributor to the international press, Johnson has no equal as an observer and interpreter of national and world events. Whether he is writing about politics in South Africa, Europe or the USA, the new space race, leading personalities of our time, or even soccer, his views are always sharp, clear, highly informed, and original.

These essays are very much in the tradition of George Orwell. Orwell once said that his aim was to make political writing an art form in itself, yet some of his most memorable essays—such as those on boys’ comics—revealed a mind with interests far beyond politics alone. Johnson’s writing shares this same quality. Like Orwell’s essays, these pieces can be read one after another or dipped into at random, always with the assurance of finding something startling and original.

The result is A Roving Eye—a book that is not only unusual, but unique, with a depth, range, humanity, and sophistication far beyond the ordinary.