27 April 2021

A great historian for non-scholars - John Julius Norwich



John Julius Cooper (1929-2018) was the son of a society woman and a special political dynamo. His mum, Lady Diana Man­ners Cooper (died 1986), was a daug­h­ter of the Duke of Rutland. She was a society beauty, actress, hostess and a member of English Club of aristocrats and intellectuals called The Coterie. Lady Diana sent her only child to the USA and to school in Canada during the war for safety, then brought him back to Eton.

His father was Duff Cooper (d1954). Duff resign­ed from the For­eign Office to become a Conservative MP, and resigned again as 1st Lord of the Admiralty after the Munich Agreement in 1938. A favourite of Sir Winston Churchill, he became Minister for Information, and amb­assador to Paris during the war. In Jan 1944 Duff became Britain’s rep to General de Gaulle’s French Committee in Algiers — going on immediately after the lib­er­ation of Paris as Britain’s first post-war ambassador. In 1945 he was asked to stay on by Clement Attlee’s Labour government.

When his father became ambassador, JJ led a very different life. Holidays were always spent in France! The Hôtel de Charost on the Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré was a very beautiful embassy; it had been owned by Napoleon’s sister Pauline Borghese and later by the Duke of Wellington.

Appropriately the Coopers met the Duke and Duchess of Windsor at the British Embassy in Paris in 1946. When they left the embassy at the end of that year, France had become JJ’s permanent home.

In 1947, while waiting to join the British Navy, JJ also spent 6 months living with a lovely Alsatian family in Strasbourg, att­ending lectures in German & Russian at Strasbourg Uni. On the 3rd anniversary of the D-Day landings, at commemor­ative serv­ices on the beach, JJ’s father introduced him to the General de Gaulle.

JJ was taken to the Nuremburg trials, and the unique atmosphere in the Paris embassy introduced him to high politics. When JJ joined the Navy as a national serviceman, Lady Diana introduced her son to everyone who counted: Lord Beav­er­brook was John Julius’s godfather; Winston Chur­ch­ill came to dinner; HG Wells popped in to socialise. And she introduced him to Pope Pius XII.

A History of Venice, 1982

Byzantium, 1992

After National Service, John Julius Norwich took a degree in French and Russian at New College, Oxford. Then he followed his father’s path into the Foreign Office in 1952.

When JJ was about to take up his first overseas post, Lady Diana tried to persuade the foreign secretary Sir Anthony Eden to send her son to Paris. But in this instance, he became 3rd secretary in Belgrade instead. Then he served as 2nd Secretary in Beirut until 1960. Then he worked with the British Delegation to the Disarmament Conference at Geneva. From there JJ began to explore the Middle and Near East, whose history fascinated him for so many years.

With Duff Cooper's death in 1954, the young man inherited the title of Viscount Norwich, created for his father only 2 years earlier. This allowed him to sit in the House of Lords as Lord Nor­wich. But after an unrew­ard­ing period "locking him inside Whitehall", he resigned from Foreign Office in 1964.

History Books
The 2nd Viscount Norwich abandoned his diplomatic career to become a cultural commentator and a successful, pop­ular historian. During his travels, John Julius had been excited to learn of the history of the Normans in Sicily. He appointed a literary agent and a publisher, and wrote his first proper book, in two volumes. BBC TV must have liked the work because they chose him as a suitable presenter for historical and archaeological features.

Over the years JJ authored histories of Norman Sicily, the Republic of Venice, Byzantine Empire, Mediter­ranean Sea, papacy, Sicily and France. He also wrote on architecture, music and the history plays of Shakespeare and presented many historical documentaries on BBC Television.

Like other popular historians, JJ con­cen­trated on telling a good story. He didn't use obscure scholarly lang­uage, did not try to be cont­rov­ersial and focused on fasc­in­ating events & personalities. The Norwich books that I recom­mended most often to students were A History of Venice 1982; Middle Sea: History of the Med­it­erranean 2007  and Absolute Monarchs: History of the Papacy 2011.

Besides writing 25 books, JJ became a TV docum­entary maker, radio panelist, lecturer and chairman of cul­tural organis­at­ions. His charm and diplomatic manner were learned during his 15 years in the Foreign Office. 

While writing, JJ also made time for his causes. The most public of these was his loved Venice. Invited to become chair of Venice in Peril in 1970, he campaigned to save church interiors and architectural monuments, rem­ain­ing a tolerant observ­er of dodgy Venet­ian and Italian politics. He sat on the executive committee of the National Trust for 35 years, wrote a guide to the best of English architect­ure & became chairman of the World Monuments Fund. Lord Norwich was also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Liter­at­ure and the Royal Geographical Society. And as a music lover, he was on the board of the English National Opera.

In 1952 Viscount Norwich married Anne Clifford, daughter of the Hon Sir Bede Edmund Hugh Clifford. They had a daughter, historian Hon Artemis Cooper, and a son, archit­ect the Hon Jason Charles Duff Cooper. In 1989 JJ married the Hon Mollie Phil­ipps, daughter of 1st Baron Sherfield. His other dau­ghter Alleg­ra, who became a script­ writer.

The Great Cities in History, 2009

The Popes, 2012

I liked the obituary-writer who noted in June 2018 that the late Lord Norwich had specialised in the democratic art of elucidating the past to the commit­ted, but not scholarly history reader. Patrician yes, but a people’s historian.






23 comments:

Student of History said...

If my dad was a Minister and ambassador, and my mum was the best connected noble woman in Europe, I too could dedicate my career to publishing quality history books. Hopefully.

Parnassus said...

Hello Hels, There are definitely times when an overview is more desired than an intricate history. However, considering his life, I think I would rather read his autobiographical works, of which there appear to be several. At any rate, he is now officially on the list.
--Jim

Rachel Phillips said...

An interesting read about a man who has passed me by to a certain extent. He and his father were dismissed by my mother for being given the name Viscount Norwich, a city with which neither had any connection, although that is by the by. From your John Julius today I was led to Paddy Fermor another great writer and adventurer and friend of John Julius. I will read both when I get space in my reading time and seek out informaton from the BBC Sound archives.

Joe said...

To link two separate posts, Duff Cooper was specifically named as a Nazi target in The Black Book.

Luiz Gomes said...

Boa tarde Hels, obrigado pela matéria e trazer a história de um escritor que eu não conhecia.

Pipistrello said...

I do enjoy a rather less scholarly approach to history for the bedside reading pile and I'm surprised I've not had the pleasure of any of his works to date. This must be rectified! His parents, of course, make many appearances through some of the gossipy works around WW2 that I have read more recently.

Hels said...

Student

I would have assumed that no matter how successful and well connected our parents were, our own success depends, in the end, on our innate intelligence and high quality tertiary education. But John Julius Norwich actually said that sharing his parents' education and careers was far more important in his life than Oxford.

So we need to select our parents carefully :)

Hels said...

Parnassus

the only autobiography I can find is "Trying to Please", published in 2008. If you read this book and think it is worth reading, please drop a note in this Comment Section. Nowadays I don't buy new books until I see a trusted recommendation.

Hels said...

Rachel

I didn't recognise the name Paddy Fermor, but I am not surprised that he was a friend of John Julius. Norwich took his influence on other writers very seriously, both formally via being a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, and socially.

Again, if you read a Fermor book you enjoy, please drop a note in this Comment Section.

Hels said...

Joe

Thank you! Duff Cooper had been First Lord of the Admiralty, and when Winston Churchill became prime minister in 1940, Cooper became the Minister of Information. So it is not surprising that he was listed in the Black Book. I will go back to that post and add Cooper's name.

Hels said...

Luiz

as JJ Norwich's greatest contribution to history writing was his English language skills, I hope his translations are as pleasurable as the originals.

Hels said...

Pipistrello

If by "scholarly" you mean using primary historical sources for his research, he would agree with you. JJ Norwich laughingly admitted that he never uncovered a single, totally new fact in any of the histories he wrote about. In fact I am quite prepared to acknowledge he may have made some mistakes or, more likely omissions in his enormous oeuvre.

My bigger problem as a reader is dense historical writing. If I have to read the first few paragraphs slowly and repetitively in order to untangle the meaning, I close the book and hand it back.

Pipistrello said...

I really meant the latter, dense and abstruse. Nancy Mitford did a fine and readable job on Louis XIV with plenty of source material, as a for inst., and was quite entertaining for a bedtime read. But I daresay she probably didn't have Historian listed as an occupation!

Regarding your comment to Rachel, above, a most wonderful Patrick Leigh Fermor is the first of his autobiographical trilogy, "A Time of Gifts". As for the other two, I cannot comment as they've not yet made it to the top of the reading pile! My best friend adores his Greek books "Mani" and "Roumeli" but, again, I've not yet had the pleasure.

Hels said...

Pipistrello

I read Mitford's "The Pursuit of Love" and "Love in a Cold Climate" decades ago and enjoyed them thoroughly. But I had no idea she knew the Coopers socially/professionally, to the extent that in 1945, the Labour government kept the Conservative minister in place. And when the Coopers were replaced, Nancy Mitford and Evelyn Waugh missed them terribly.

What a small world it must have been!

bazza said...

He was the epitome of "Well-connected"! I fondly remember his TV documentaries as being very accessible and I learned a lot from them. Most popular historians (if there is such a thing) do not have the access to so many primary sources as he must have had.

Hels said...

bazza

Thank you...I should have discussed tv in the post.

The only tv series that Norwich wrote and narrated that I can remember now was "Treasure Houses of Britain" (1985). I already loved many of the country houses that he was analysing, having been on organised tours when we lived in Britain. So I was very pleased back in 1985 to find he was an excellent presenter.

Angel charls said...

nice post
As you have said, The 2nd Viscount Norwich abandoned his diplomatic career to become a cultural commentator and a successful, pop­ular historian. During his travels, John Julius had been excited to learn of the history of the Normans in Sicily. He appointed a literary agent and a publisher, and wrote his first proper book, in two volumes.
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Bellen Instagram Klantenservice

Hels said...

Angel

Yes...it was a big decision to change from a safe, high status career to a more popular, more risky career in mid life. But Norwich made an excellent choice. I doubt if there is a historically-interested person in the entire (old) British Empire and Europe who isn't familiar with his writing or tv programmes.

Rachel Phillips said...

Re. Pip's comment, Fermor's third volume of his autobiography was finished off by John Julius's daughter Artemis Cooper.

Hels said...

Rachel,

Thank you. I didn't know about Fermor's name or work until early this week, so I was very pleased to find a Fermor blog that would totally agree with your comment. And more.

https://patrickleighfermor.org/2018/06/04/john-julius-norwich-1929-2018/

Rachel Phillips said...

Thank you Hels. I will take a look.

Hilary Melton-Butcher said...

Hi Hels - Fermor is my favourite author ... I've written about his books. JJ is an excellent radio presenter I loved hearing him talk ... I missed the 1980s as I was over in South Africa ... but must read at least one of his books ... as he certainly was a great wordsmith for the gentle historians. Thanks for this ... Hilary

Hels said...

Hilary

I think I better start reading Fermor's works on Crete since the two authors were professional as well as personal friends. But first I will go to your blog and catch up on your favourite author... many thanks.