John Julius Cooper, 2nd Viscount Norwich,CVO (15 September 1929 – 1 June 2018),[1] also known asJohn Julius Norwich, was an Englishpopular historian,[2] writer of widely read travel books, and television personality.[3]
Cooper was born in London in 1929, the son of aConservative politician and diplomat, Duff Cooper, and the actress,Diana Manners. Cooper joined theBritish Foreign Service in 1952, serving inYugoslavia andLebanon and as a member of the British delegation to the Disarmament Conference inGeneva.[4] On his father's death in 1954, he became the secondViscount Norwich. In 1964, Cooper left the diplomatic service to become a writer.
Norwich was born at the Alfred House Nursing Home onPortland Place inMarylebone, London, on 15 September 1929.[7] He was the son of theConservative politician and diplomatDuff Cooper, later Viscount Norwich, and ofLady Diana Manners, a celebrated beauty and society figure.[8] He was given the name "Julius" in part because he was born bycaesarean section.[9] 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.[7] Through his father, he was descended from KingWilliam IV and his mistressDorothea Jordan.[10]
In 1964, Norwich left the diplomatic service to become a writer.[16] His subsequent books included histories ofSicily under the Normans (1967, 1970),Venice (1977, 1981), theByzantine Empire (1988, 1992, 1995), theMediterranean (2006) and thePapacy (2011), amongst others (see list below).[19] He also served as editor of series such asGreat Architecture of the World,The Italian World,The New Shell Guides to Great Britain,The Oxford Illustrated Encyclopaedia of Art and theDuff Cooper Diaries.[20]
Christmas Crackers were compiled from whatever attracted Norwich: letters and diaries and gravestones and poems, boastfulWho'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 magazineField and Stream concerning the republication ofLady Chatterley's Lover.[26][27]
His finalChristmas 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.[28]
Norwich's first wife was Anne Frances May Clifford, daughter of the Hon. SirBede Clifford; they had one daughter, the Hon.Artemis Cooper, a historian, and a son, the Hon. Jason Charles Duff Bede Cooper, an architect.[29] After their divorce, Norwich married his second wife, the Hon. Mary (Makins) Philipps, daughter ofThe 1st Baron Sherfield.[30]
Norwich was also the father ofAllegra Huston, born of his affair with the American ballet dancerEnrica Soma while she was married to the American film directorJohn Huston.[31]
He died atKing Edward VII's Hospital in London on 1 June 2018, aged 88.[3][16] He was cremated, and his ashes remain with his family, awaiting an appropriate occasion to be scattered in the Venetian Lagoon.
1954–2018:The Right Honourable The Viscount Norwich[35]
Norwich was appointed to theRoyal Victorian Order as a Commander in 1992 byElizabeth II, as part of the celebrations to mark the 40th anniversary of her accession.[36]
Coat of arms of John Julius Norwich
Crest
On the Battlements of a Tower Argent a Bull passant Sable armed and unguled Or
Escutcheon
Or three Lions rampant Gules on a Chief Azure a Portcullis chained between two Fleurs-de-lis of the first
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
Venice: a Traveller's Companion (an anthology compiled by Lord Norwich), Constable, 1990,ISBN978-0-09-467550-6
Oxford Illustrated Encyclopaedia of Art (editor) Oxford, 1990
The Normans in the South andThe Kingdom in the Sun, onNorman Sicily, later republished asThe Normans in Sicily, Penguin, 1992 (The Normans in the South, 1016–1130; originally published:- Harlow:Longman,1967—The Kingdom in the Sun, 1130–1194; originally published:- Harlow:Longman, 1970)ISBN978-0-14-015212-8
The Popes: A History, Chatto & Windus, 2011,ISBN978-0-09-956587-1 (UK title forAbsolute Monarchs: A History of the Papacy)
A History of England in 100 Places: From Stonehenge to the Gherkin, John Murray, 2012,ISBN978-1-84854-609-7
Darling Monster: The Letters of Lady Diana Cooper to Her Son John Julius Norwich (editor), Chatto & Windus, 2013,ISBN978-0-7011-8779-8
Cities That Shaped the Ancient World (editor), Thames and Hudson Ltd, 2014,ISBN978-0-500-25204-8
Sicily: An Island at the Crossroads of History, Random House, 2015,ISBN978-0-8129-9517-6
Four Princes: Henry VIII, Francis I, Charles V, Suleiman the Magnificent and the Obsessions that Forged Modern Europe, John Murray, 2016,ISBN978-1-47363-295-0
An English Christmas – all of the best writings about this most memorable time of year, gathered into one book – edited by John Julius Norwich, 2017
^This is a quotation from the Roman poetCatullus:Hamacher, Werner (2020).On the brink : language, time, history, and politics. London: Rowman and Littlefield. pp. 79–80.ISBN9781786603913.
