John Julius Norwich is the author of magisterial histories of Norman Sicily, Venice, Byzantium and the Mediterranean; he has also written on Mouth Athos, the Sahara, English architecture, Shakespeare’s histories and nineteenth-century Venice. His memoirs Trying to Please were published in 2008. He is at present working on a history of the Papacy.
He has made some thirty historical documentaries for television. Formerly Chairman on Colnaghi, the oldest fine art dealers in London, he is Honorary Chairman of the Venice in Peril Fund and Chairman Emeritus of World Monuments Fund Britain.