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1 review
John Julius Norwich

Longmans, 1970

Great History of Sicily
The Kingdom in The Sun is an outstanding history book that effectively sorts out how the Normans conquered Sicily. The book is an amazing historical yarn about real people that knits together Norman, German, Italian, French, Byzantine and Papal history. If you have ever wondered why Sicilian history is different, then you should read this book. Also, Sicily was the site of the first the first ...

A Christmas Cracker 1999: Being a Commonplace Selection: Being a Commonplace Selection

1 review
John Julius Norwich

John Julius Norwich, 1999

The 'little of everything to last a lifetime' anthology
JJN's Christmas Cracker of 1979 remains a gem of a book. My paperback copy was falling apart by the time I lost it in Italy in 2003. More an old friend than a book (both in one is a gift from the Gods) the anthology never failed in 20 years as a comfort in grief, reflection in times of sadness and a source of humour in bits of poetry and prose I'd otherwise never have dreamed of looking into. I ...

Treasures of Britain: The Architectural, Cultural, Historical and Natural History of Britain

4 reviews
Automobile Association (Great Britain)

W. W. Norton & Company, 2002

A terrific treasury for any anglophile!
What a wonderful book. It is set up like an encyclopedia, in alphabetical order, with entries about places in Britain that are of architectural, cultural, and historical interest. The entries are fascinating and the pictures are beautiful. I can open it on any random page and be enthralled. I could spend hours engrossed by it! The only downside of this book is that it is a constant ...

The Illustrated Christmas Cracker

1 review
John Julius Norwich, Quentin Blake

Transworld Publishers, 2002

A CLASSIC !!
An excellent collection of Lord Norwichs wit! If you like some intelligent writing, then go no farther! By the by, his History of Venice and of Byzantium are also worthy of possible purchase.

Decorative Floors of Venice

2 reviews
Tudy Sammartini

Merrell Publishers, 2003

Gorgeous!
This is a terrific buy. If you never wanted to go to Venice before - you will now! The photographs are outstanding and the text not too boring. An invaluable reference for artists. Thank heaven someone thought to study these ancient floors before they are lost! Supposedly "there is nothing new under the sun", well, I would consider having one of these designs in a new home, if I could find ...

A History of Venice

1 review
John Julius Norwich

Penguin Books Ltd, 2003

History that floats upon its past like a gondola on the waters of Venice...
Too often, works that deal with the history of a place - a country, a state, a town, a city - sacrifice either readability or detail. Too often, an author will leap from assumption to assumption in his desire to fill the gaps when historical evidence is lacking. Too often, a history becomes either a fantasy... or a dry-as-dust book showing a proliferation of passive tenses and turgid ...

The Normans in Sicily: The Normans in the South 1016-1130 and the Kingdom in the Sun 1130-1194

6 reviews
John Julius Norwich

Penguin Global, 2004

Fascinating history, great story
Norwich is a storyteller as much as he is a historian. He resembles Barbara Tuchman -- you might not base a doctoral thesis on his work, but he certaily provides a great read. In many ways, this work is superior to his Byzantium trilogy. This may be because he has bitten off a more managable slice of history. This allows Norwich to go deeper on the main personalities and events he is covering. ...

A Traveller's Companion to Venice

3 reviews
John Julius Norwich

Robinson Publishing, 2002

This should be required reader for any visitor to Venice!
Lord Norwich is a consumate storyteller with an incredible ability to weave various sources of information into a compelling narrative--or in this case, a series of anecdotes. I can hardly recommend this highly enough. His choices of material are brilliant, his narration masterful, and the overall sense of place perfectly fitted to the Most Serene Republic. Also not to miss is his A History ...

A Short History of Byzantium

92 reviews
John Julius Norwich

Knopf, 1997

Excellent Abridgement
Byzantine history is, like the very word's now-definition, both complicated and slippery. John J. Norwich, however, did history a very great service when he devoted his academic life to the neglected history of this remarkable culture and long-lived empire. This book is, essentially, the "abridged" version of his three-volume masterwork. Indeed, it is because of the work of scholars like ...

Byzantium Folio Society Books 3 vol. set/Early Centuries, Apogee, Decline and Fall

1 review
John Julius Norwich

Folio Society Books, 2005

One of the Truly Great Histories
In this day and age it is rare to find a truly well written history. I am talking about the kind of work which deserves to be ranked alongside the classics like Gibbon's The Decline and Fall of Rome. This work is one of those few. Norwich is a historian who actually knows how to write. Even better, he knows what to write. This sweeping history spans more than 11 centuries without bogging the ...

GREAT ARCHITECTURE OF THE WORLD

4 reviews
John Julius, ed Norwich

Artists House, 1991

Excellent introduction to architecture
As a licensed architect, I'm often asked to talk to children or teenagers who are vaguely interested in architecture. (Well, not that often, but it has happened.) I've been recommending this book for years. It has lots of full-color cutaway drawings. Let me put it this way, if you don't stare fascinated at these drawings, you probably won't be drawn to architecture. My copy of the book is ...

A History of Venice

40 reviews
John Julius Norwich

Vintage, 1989

1400 years, told with panache and accuracy
This is a dazzling history of a unique political entity - an oligarchic republic surrounded by feudal autocracies, religiously moderate hundreds of years before toleration developed anywhere else, and a highly profitable form of public-private capitalism. In this splendid book, the reader is treated to the entire arc of rise, reign, and fall, in luminously beautiful prose and plenty of ...

The Great Cities in History

2 reviews

Thames & Hudson, 2009

Metropolitan riches beyond measure
This wonderful book is almost impossible to review fairly, especially in view of the outstanding review by Tunku Varadarajan in "The Wall Street Journal" [link to free article in first Comment]. The list of cities is so interesting, the various authors so talented and informative, the overall approach so encompassing, that one can merely suggest a personal approach that others may find useful. ...

The Duff Cooper Diaries

4 reviews

Orion Publishing, 2007

A Most Admirable Rake
A great book for those interested in the public and private life of a key political player for HMG during the first half of the last century. Nicely edited by the diarist's son. Duff Cooper was a WW I war hero, writer, member of the House of Commons, who resigned from the British cabinet over policy related to Hitler. He was a handler for the difficult General de Gaulle during WW II, then ...

Paradise of Cities : Venice In the 19th Century

5 reviews
JOHN JULIUS NORWICH, 2003

What's a historian's job?
A fascinating collection of anecdotes and potted biographies about famous people who visited Venice in the nineteenth century. In spite of its subtitle it's not really a history, although one of the biographical sketches is of Daniele Manin, who briefly restored the Venetian Republic. The history of Venice from, say, 1770 to 1870 raises some interesting questions of the kind historians are ...

Byzantium: The Decline and Fall

25 reviews
John Julius Norwich

Knopf, 1995

A brilliant conclusion to a masterpiece
Norwich's final volume in his sweeping history of the Byzantine Empire is bitter-sweet. As Norwich himself recognizes in his introduction, when he concluded writing it, it was as if he was saying farewell to an old friend. I felt the same way when I read the concluding chapter. Norwich focuses almost exclusively on political history, a reason for which I had previously deducted a star in ...

Saint Petersburg: Museums, Palaces, and Historic Collections: A Guide to the Lesser Known Treasures of St. ...

5 reviews
Cathy Giangrande

Bunker Hill Publishing, 2003

An outstanding guidebook to St. Petersburg
I began reading Cathy Giandrande's little guide to St. Petersburg with a great deal of skepticism. As I kept exploring the book, all my doubts quickly disappeared. That alone came to me as a surprise. Unlike most Russians who still suffer from a mild identity disorder, Petersburgers have a strong sense of local patriotism and know what they are and what their city is about. From time to time, ...

Twelve Days of Christmas

6 reviews
John Julius Norwich

Doubleday, 2000

Very Cute!
I was visiting a friend who had this book sitting out on her coffee table along with other Christmas books she was putting out in preparation for the Holiday season. While she recieved a phone call I read this short story and found it so amusing and very cute. Quentin Blake's illustrations and John Julius Norwich's creative insight will make you smile. This story is very enjoyable.

Byzantium the Decline & Fall

36 reviews
John Julius Norwich

FOLIO SOCIETY LTD (ENGLAND), 1991

Excellent History Guide
The Roman Empire of the East began on Monday May 11, 330AD and ended on Tuesday, May 29, 1453AD. It took Lord Norwich three volumes to cover these 1100 years, and he has provided a superb, flowing overview, occasionally diverted by the art, the culture, the law, and the sciences that Constantinople kept alive, almost single handedly, through the early middle ages or, as they were called when ...

Byzantium (II): The Apogee

33 reviews
John Julius Norwich

Knopf, 1992

Apogee
John Norwich is an excellent writer. He brings the time period to life. you can almost feel the scenes and the events. It is unforntuate that the world has lost most of the true Byzantine history. It would be interesting to see how the world would have developed had a few key decsions been made differntly during this critcal period in Byzantine history. A highly recommended series of ...

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