Related: Historian and broadcaster John Julius Norwich dies at 88. If you have a complaint about the editorial content which relates to inaccuracy or intrusion, then please contact the editor here. John Julius Norwich at home in west London, 2011. John Julius declared that felt he was a bit of a disappointment to his father, but his inheritance included some of his father’s genes. He liked to tell the story of his first visit with his father: ‘He said we’d only go into two buildings, St Mark’s at the beginning and Harry’s Bar at the end: in between we would just walk.’. He was the only child of Evelyn Waugh’s close friend and correspondent, Diana Cooper, and her husband Duff, with whom Waugh was not on particularly friendly terms. A favourite of Sir Winston Churchill, he became minister for information, and ambassador to Paris during the war in 1945 he was asked to stay on by Clement Attlee’s Labour government. His gift to them was energy, enthusiasm and charm, allied to a diplomatic manner learned during his 15 years in the Foreign Office. Two thousand years of history was no obstacle, and his history of the popes appeared in 2011, with Norwich modestly claiming to have met only four (Pius XII, John XXIII, Paul VI and John Paul I). He sat on the committee of the National Trust for 35 years, and wrote a guide to the best of English architecture. He appointed a literary agent, who got him a publisher, and, sitting down in the London Library each day, he wrote his first proper book, in two volumes. From there he began to explore, when on leave, the Middle and near east, whose history was to preoccupy him for so many years. Besides that, he was a TV documentary maker, and a radio panellist on Round Britain Quiz; an excellent lecturer and an active chairman of countless cultural organisations. NORWICH John Julius A memorial service will be held on Wednesday 14th November, at 4.30pm, St James's Church, Piccadilly. For music was another passion, and, more particularly, opera. John Julius Norwich was appointed CVO in 1993. John Julius’s edition of his mother’s gossipy and loving letters to him, titled Darling Monster, extended a small, satisfying family oeuvre. During this time, when on leave, he went to Sicily for two weeks. His luck held when BBC TV chose him as a suitable presenter for historical and archaeological features. John Julius Norwich says in his trilogy on the Byzantine Empire that the defeat was "its death blow, though centuries remained before the remnant fell. In 1960 he joined the British delegation to the disarmament conference in Geneva. Not surprisingly one reviewer wrote that ‘his enthusiasm is addictive’ when John Julius had called John Paul II’s 500 canonisations as “we have saints like other people have mice”. Start your Independent Premium subscription today. He joined a group of like-minded “great and good” who wanted to set up Heritage Broadcasting, a radio station for “accessibility and awareness of all the arts”. He visited the Italian city more than 200 times and spent decades dedicated to its preservation and protection, from 1970 as chairman of the Venice in Peril fund and company chairman of the World Monuments Fund. It was given to few schoolboys, even in Eton Cadet Corps uniform, to assist their ambassadress mother in inspecting the General de Lattre de Tassigny’s troops. John Julius with his parents on a wartime trip to New York, Writing was a full-time occupation, but John Julius also made time for his causes: Venice in Peril, the National Trust and the English National Opera chief among them, Aristocratic historian Johns Julius Norwich dies aged 88, Ray Wilkins: England footballer who was made Chelsea captain at 18, sitting down in the London Library each day, Scientist who helped to develop an international voltage standard, Anita Shreve: American author who wrote about loss and love, Pulitzer prize-winning journalist who put America’s Newsday on the map, You may not agree with our views, or other users’, but please respond to them respectfully, Swearing, personal abuse, racism, sexism, homophobia and other discriminatory or inciteful language is not acceptable, Do not impersonate other users or reveal private information about third parties, We reserve the right to delete inappropriate posts and ban offending users without notification. Being with him was a tonic that made one more aware of all the best things in life. He joined the Foreign Office and inherited the title of Viscount Norwich in 1954 – in fact, he preferred not to use it professionally. The existing Open Comments threads will continue to exist for those who do not subscribe to Independent Premium. By this time, his father had been made ambassador to Paris (an episode wickedly guyed by Nancy Mitford in Don’t Tell Alfred), and John Julius was sent to the University of Strasbourg before a more conventional stint studying French and Russian at New College, Oxford. He was a constant source of entertainment and stimulus. John Julius was the son of the Tory MP Duff Cooper and his wife, Lady Diana Cooper (nee Manners), daughter of the 8th Duke of Rutland and a well-known society beauty.