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John Julius Norwich (1929–2018)

Author of A Short History of Byzantium

86+ Works 10,933 Members 176 Reviews 27 Favorited
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About the Author

John Julius Norwich was born in the United Kingdom on September 15, 1929. He served in the Royal Navy before receiving a degree in French and Russian at New College, Oxford. After graduation, he joined the H. M. Foreign Service and served in Belgrade, Beirut, and as a member of British delegation show more to the Disarmament Conference in Geneva. In 1954, he inherited the title of Viscount Norwich. In 1964, he resigned from the Foreign Service to become a writer. He was a historian, travel writer, and television personality. His books included The Normans in the South, A History of Venice, The Italian World, Venice: A Traveller's Companion, 50 Years of Glyndebourne: An Illustrated History, A Short History of Byzantium, Absolute Monarchs: A History of the Papacy, Sicily: An Island at the Crossroads of History, and A History of France. He and H. C. Robbins Landon wrote Five Centuries of Music in Venice. Norwich was the host of the BBC radio panel game My Word! from 1978 to 1982. He wrote and presented more than 30 television documentaries including Maestro, The Fall of Constantinople, Napoleon's Hundred Days, Cortés and Montezuma, Maximilian of Mexico, The Knights of Malta, The Treasure Houses of Britain, and The Death of the Prince Imperial in the Zulu War. In 1993, he was appointed CVO for having curated an exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum to mark the 40th anniversary of the Queen's accession to the throne. In 2015, he was awarded the Biographers' Club award for his lifetime service to biography. He died on June 1, 2018 at the age of 88. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Image credit: John Julius Norwich

Series

Works by John Julius Norwich

A Short History of Byzantium (1997) 1,329 copies
A History of Venice (1977) 1,099 copies
Byzantium: The Apogee (1992) 755 copies
The Great Cities in History (2009) 201 copies
Twelve Days of Christmas (1998) 184 copies
A History of France (2018) 170 copies
The World Atlas of Architecture (1984) — Foreword — 152 copies
A Taste for Travel (1985) — Editor — 87 copies
Love in the Ancient World (1997) 81 copies
Trying to Please: A Memoir (1600) 59 copies
Britain's Heritage (1978) 48 copies
An English Christmas (2017) 34 copies
Venice: The Rise to Empire (1977) 19 copies
England and Wales (2000) 12 copies
Mount Athos (1966) 12 copies
Sovereign (1992) 8 copies
Sahara (1968) 6 copies
History Quiz (1983) 5 copies
Vizantija 1 copy

Associated Works

The Story of My Life (1789) — Introduction, some editions — 1,040 copies
Count Belisarius (1938) — Introduction, some editions — 1,019 copies
The Week-End Book (1924) — Introduction, some editions — 213 copies
The Duff Cooper diaries, 1915-1951 (2005) — Editor — 167 copies
I Wish I'd Been There, Book Two: European History (2008) — Contributor — 152 copies
The Burrell Collection (1983) — Introduction — 140 copies
A Country Parson: James Woodforde's Diary 1759-1802 (1985) — Foreword — 61 copies
Oxtravels: Meetings with Remarkable Travel Writers (2011) — Contributor — 57 copies
Coffee with Michelangelo (Coffee with...Series) (2007) — Foreword — 52 copies
The Embassy to Constantinople and Other Works (Everyman Paperback (0971) — Editor, some editions — 34 copies
Great Commanders of the Medieval World, 454–1582 (2011) — Contributor — 31 copies
Founders and Followers (1992) — Contributor — 12 copies
The Girl with the Widow's Peak: The Memoirs (2014) — Foreword — 9 copies
James Plumptre's Britain: The journals of a tourist in the 1790s (1992) — Preface, some editions — 4 copies
Rawdon Brown and the Anglo-Venetian Relationship (2005) — Foreword — 2 copies

Tagged

ancient history (115) anthology (88) architecture (180) art (55) biography (108) Byzantine (101) Byzantine Empire (158) Byzantine History (142) Byzantium (566) Christianity (73) Christmas (64) Constantinople (102) England (78) Europe (162) European History (271) fiction (190) Folio Society (184) France (63) historical fiction (120) history (2,537) Italian History (129) Italy (353) literature (80) medieval (202) medieval history (226) Mediterranean (125) Middle Ages (160) Middle East (66) non-fiction (592) Papacy (60) read (70) religion (115) Roman Empire (62) Rome (92) Sicily (113) to-read (547) travel (179) unread (58) Venice (264) William Shakespeare (122)

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John Julius Norwich? in History at 30,000 feet: The Big Picture (June 2015)

Reviews

I remember loving John Julius Norwich's books about Byzantium as a teenager: big, sweeping epic histories with lots of drama and adventure and some slyly funny asides. Reading The Middle Sea told me that I can never go back and re-read them because I would find them far more tarnished works than they are in my memory. Now, with many more years and training behind me, I can see how shallow are the foundations on which Norwich builds his narrative: the assumptions and generalisations (often gendered, almost always racialised), the thin bibliography, the Eurocentrism, and on and on. Norwich's prose is still pleasurable and there is something of the raconteur here that's appealing. But to the old saw about how you should never meet your heroes should perhaps be added one about never going back to re-read their work, either.… (more)
 
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siriaeve | 8 other reviews | Dec 12, 2023 |
I've been wanting to read a history of the papacy for a long time. Although Norwich calls himself an agnostic Protestant, he writes fairly of the popes, giving even some of the more infamous ones their due. Along the way, he enlightened me about the reasons for the Avignon Papacy and the background to the various anti-popes and rival elections of popes. He also does a pretty good brief summary of the nineteenth century unification of Italy and the various roles played by Cavour, Gariboldi and Mazzini. And there's more, such as the reputed origin of the belief that Friday the 13th is an unlucky day.… (more)
½
 
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nmele | 26 other reviews | Nov 30, 2023 |
A neat book, just what it says on the cover, a compelling, narrative story of France's history. I think this author does better work when tackling more specific topics, I really liked his history of the papacy in "Absolute Monarchs".
 
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Autolycus21 | 4 other reviews | Oct 10, 2023 |

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Works
86
Also by
17
Members
10,933
Popularity
#2,163
Rating
3.9
Reviews
176
ISBNs
315
Languages
15
Favorited
27

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