John Julius Norwich (1929–2018)

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.… (mere)

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.… (mere)