John Julius Norwich Explained

Honorific-Prefix:The Right Honourable
The Viscount Norwich
Birth Name:John Julius Cooper
Birth Date:1929 9, df=y
Birth Place:London, England
Death Place:London, England
Resting Place:St Mary on Paddington Green Church
Penname:John Julius Norwich
Children:3; including Artemis Cooper and Allegra Huston
Module:
Embed:yes
Term Start1:1 January 1954
Term End1:11 November 1999
Hereditary peerage
Successor14:House of Lords Act 1999

John Julius Cooper, 2nd Viscount Norwich, (15 September 1929 – 1 June 2018),[1] known as John Julius Norwich, was an English popular historian,[2] travel writer, and television personality.[3]

Biography

Youth

Norwich was born at the Alfred House Nursing Home on Portland Place in Marylebone, London, on 15 September 1929.[4] He was the son of the Conservative politician and diplomat Duff Cooper, later Viscount Norwich, and of Lady Diana Manners, a celebrated beauty and society figure.[5] He was given the name "Julius" in part because he was born by caesarean section.[6] Such was his mother's fame as an actress and beauty that the birth attracted a crowd outside the nursing home and hundreds of letters of congratulations.[4] Through his father, he was descended from King William IV and his mistress Dorothea Jordan.[7]

He was educated at Egerton House School in Dorset Square, London, later becoming a boarder at the school when it was evacuated to Northamptonshire before the outbreak of the Second World War.[8] Because his father as Minister of Information was high on the Nazi enemies list of British politicians, Norwich's parents feared for their son's safety in the event of a German invasion of Britain. In 1940 they decided to send him away after the US ambassador to Britain, Joseph P. Kennedy, offered to bring him to the United States with other evacuee children on board the .[9] He attended Upper Canada College, Toronto, Canada, while spending his holidays with the family of William S. Paley on Long Island in New York.[10] In 1942 he returned to Britain,[11] where he attended Eton College. After the war, he studied at the University of Strasbourg while his father was ambassador to France. He completed his national service in the Royal Navy before taking a degree in French and Russian at New College, Oxford.[12]

Career

Joining the British Foreign Service after Oxford, John Julius Cooper served in Yugoslavia and Lebanon and as a member of the British delegation to the Disarmament Conference in Geneva.[13] On his father's death in 1954, he inherited the title of Viscount Norwich, created for his father, Duff Cooper, in 1952.[14] This gave him a right to sit in the House of Lords, though he lost this right with the House of Lords Act 1999.[15]

In 1964, Norwich left the diplomatic service to become a writer.[13] His subsequent books included histories of Sicily under the Normans (1967, 1970), Venice (1977, 1981), the Byzantine Empire (1988, 1992, 1995), the Mediterranean (2006) and the Papacy (2011), amongst others (see list below).[16] He also served as editor of series such as Great Architecture of the World, The Italian World, The New Shell Guides to Great Britain, The Oxford Illustrated Encyclopaedia of Art and the Duff Cooper Diaries.[17]

Norwich worked extensively in radio and television. He was host of the BBC radio panel game My Word! for four years (1978–82) and also a regional contestant on Round Britain Quiz. He wrote and presented some 30 television documentaries, including The Fall of Constantinople, Napoleon's Hundred Days, Cortés and Montezuma, The Antiquities of Turkey, The Gates of Asia, Maximilian of Mexico, Toussaint l'Ouverture of Haiti, The Knights of Malta, Treasure Houses of Britain, and The Death of the Prince Imperial in the Zulu War.[18]

Norwich also worked for various charitable projects. He was the chairman of the Venice in Peril Fund,[19] honorary chairman of the World Monuments Fund, a member of the General Committee of Save Venice, and a vice-president of the National Association of Decorative and Fine Arts Societies.[20] For many years he was a member of the Executive Committee of the National Trust, and also served on the board of the English National Opera. Norwich was also a patron of SHARE Community, which provides vocational training to disabled people.[21] [22]

Christmas Crackers

Christmas Crackers were compiled from whatever attracted Norwich: letters and diaries and gravestones and poems, boastful Who's Who entries, indexes from biographies, word games such as palindromes, holorhymes and mnemonics, occasionally in untranslated Greek, French, Latin, German or whatever language they were sourced from, as well as such oddities as a review from the American outdoors magazine Field and Stream concerning the republication of Lady Chatterley's Lover.[23] [24]

His final Christmas Cracker was the 49th. It was put together during the early part of 2018 and he corrected the final proofs from his hospital bed before he died on 1 June 2018.[25]

Personal life and death

Norwich's first wife was Anne Frances May Clifford, daughter of the Hon. Sir Bede Clifford; they had one daughter, the Hon. Artemis Cooper, a historian, and a son, the Hon. Jason Charles Duff Bede Cooper, an architect.[26] After their divorce, Norwich married his second wife, the Hon. Mary (Makins) Philipps, daughter of The 1st Baron Sherfield.

Norwich was also the father of Allegra Huston, born of his affair with the American ballet dancer Enrica Soma while she was married to the American film director John Huston.[27]

Norwich lived for much of his life in a large detached Victorian house in Warwick Avenue, in the heart of Little Venice in Maida Vale, London, very close to Regent's Canal.[28] He died at King Edward VII's Hospital in London on 1 June 2018, aged 88.[3] [13]

Titles, styles, honours and arms

Norwich was appointed to the Royal Victorian Order as a Commander in 1992 by Elizabeth II, as part of the celebrations to mark the 40th anniversary of her accession.[32]

Escutcheon:Or three Lions rampant Gules on a Chief Azure a Portcullis chained between two Fleurs-de-lis of the first
Crest:On the Battlements of a Tower Argent a Bull passant Sable armed and unguled Or
Supporters:On either side a Unicorn Argent gorged with a Collar with Chain reflexed over the back Or pendent from the collar of the dexter a Portcullis chained and from that of the sinister a Fleur-de-lys both Gold
Orders:Royal Victorian Order (not pictured)
Motto:Odi Et Amo (I hate and I love) [33]

Works

Sources

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Telegraph Obituaries . John Julius Norwich, writer and television personality – obituary . Telegraph.co.uk . 1 June 2018 . 13 March 2020.
  2. Web site: 4 June 2008 . "John Julius Norwich:'Deep down, I'm shallow. I really am'", The Telegraph, 04 Jun 2008 . Telegraph.co.uk . 4 June 2008 . 13 March 2020.
  3. News: John Julius Norwich obituary: writer and broadcaster keen to share his many passions. The Guardian. 1 June 2018. 19 June 2018.
  4. Book: The Light of Common Day. Diana Cooper. 1959. Houghton Mifflin. 89=90.
  5. Web site: Yardley, Jonathan. "John Julius Norwich's memoir, 'Trying to Please', reviewed by Jonathan Yardley", The Washington Post, 5 September 2010 . Washingtonpost.com . 5 September 2010 . 13 March 2020.
  6. John Julius Norwich - Only trying to please. https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211212/HuFduVWc1Tw. 12 December 2021 . live. Web of Stories-Life Stories of Remarkable People. YouTube.com. 19 June 2018. 8 August 2020.
  7. Book: The Duff Cooper Diaries. John Julius Norwich . Orion Books Ltd.. 2006. x.
  8. Book: John Julius Norwich - Early school days. https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211212/voc6ZYxV_68. 12 December 2021 . live. Web of Stories-Life Stories of Remarkable People. YouTube.com. 19 June 2018. 8 August 2020.
  9. Book: Trumpets from the Steep. Diana Cooper. Vintage Books. 1960. 40.
  10. John Julius Norwich - America - my safe haven. https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211212/BhMJaovZ4Nc. 12 December 2021 . live. Web of Stories-Life Stories of Remarkable People. 19 June 2018. YouTube.com. 8 August 2020.
  11. John Julius Norwich - Lifting a lift on a cruiser. https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211212/6OCU7R3XyZc. 12 December 2021 . live. Web of Stories-Life Stories of Remarkable People. YouTube.com. 19 June 2018. 8 August 2020.
  12. Web site: John Julius Norwich :: Introduction . https://web.archive.org/web/20160301213730/http://johnjuliusnorwich.com/home_17525.html . 1 March 2016 . 10 March 2018 . www.johnjuliusnorwich.com.
  13. Cooper, John Julius, second Viscount Norwich (1929–2018), writer and broadcaster. Whyte. William. 2022. 10.1093/odnb/9780198614128.013.90000380455.
  14. "Whitehall, July 8, 1952". London Gazette. London. 8 July 1952. p. 3699.
  15. Web site: Lords reform. 20 January 2000. The Guardian. en. 10 March 2018.
  16. Web site: John Julius Norwich :: Books Written. www.johnjuliusnorwich.com. 10 March 2018.
  17. Web site: John Julius Norwich :: Books Edited. www.johnjuliusnorwich.com. 10 March 2018.
  18. Web site: John Julius Norwich :: Television . 2013 . https://web.archive.org/web/20181103011744/http://www.johnjuliusnorwich.com/television_17533.html . 3 November 2018 . John Julius Norwich . 9 August 2020.
  19. Web site: Venice in Peril — Trustees . 20 December 2015 . 25 February 2020 . https://web.archive.org/web/20200225170713/http://www.veniceinperil.org/about-us/trustees-of-venice-in-peril . dead .
  20. Web site: Welcome to NADFAS . 20 December 2015 . https://web.archive.org/web/20151222154320/http://www.nadfas.org.uk/ . 22 December 2015 . dead .
  21. Web site: Board of Trustees, Vice Presidents and Patrons Share Community. www.sharecommunity.org.uk. 20 March 2014 . en. 10 March 2018.
  22. Web site: Mission, vision, and values Share Community. www.sharecommunity.org.uk. 20 March 2014 . en. 10 March 2018.
  23. Web site: Another cracker from John Julius Norwich. 28 November 2013.
  24. Web site: Some Literary Feats for Your Yule Stockings. Mary. Blume. 3 December 1986. Los Angeles Times.
  25. Introduction to Christmas Cracker 2018
  26. Web site: Jason Charles Duff Bede Cooper . 2010 . . 2 February 2020.
  27. News: A Daughter's Life with Daddy Issues . 2 April 2009 . . 20 December 2015 .
  28. News: My perfect weekend: John Julius Norwich, historian and writer. Parker. Olivia. Daily Telegraph. 25 March 2014. 13 June 2018. en-GB. 0307-1235.
  29. Web site: John Julius Norwich . 1 June 2018 . The Times . 9 August 2018.
  30. News: John Julius Norwich: Aristocrat historian and broadcaster whose passions were inspired by remarkable parents. https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220613/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/john-julius-cooper-dead-viscount-norwich-author-duff-cooper-venice-in-peril-a8379631.html . 13 June 2022 . subscription . live. 2 June 2018 . The Independent . 9 August 2018.
  31. Web site: John Julius Norwich obituary. 1 June 2018 . The Guardian . 9 August 2018.
  32. News: Supplement to the London Gazette, 31st December 1992 . . 4 . 2 March 2022.
  33. This is a quotation from the Roman poet Catullus: Book: Hamacher . Werner . Werner Hamacher . On the brink : language, time, history, and politics . 2020 . Bowman and Littlefield . London . 9781786603913 . 79–80.

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