John Julius Norwich - a podcast by BBC Radio 4

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the broadcaster and popular historian, John Julius Norwich. Closely associated with Venice, he talks about his love for the city and his battle to protect it from the rising waters of the Mediterranean. It's a passion he learnt from his parents - the diplomat and politician Duff Cooper and the beautiful socialite Lady Diana. As a boy he grew up surrounded by his mother's friends - artists and writers like Jean Cocteau and Noel Coward. Evelyn Waugh, too, frequently visited. But he was someone who his mother adored and his father barely tolerated.

[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]

Favourite track: Bassoon Concerto in B by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Book: The History of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon
Luxury: Laptop Computer

Further episodes of Desert Island Discs: Archive 1996-2000

Further podcasts by BBC Radio 4

Website of BBC Radio 4