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John Julius Norwich - Disappointed in Norway (60/136)

1,351 views · Published 21 June 2018 · 1:15 · Indexed 20 September 2026

Channel: Web of Stories - Life Stories of Remarkable People · 2018 · Science & Technology

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John Julius Norwich (1929-2018) was an English popular historian, travel writer and television personality. He is the author of histories of Norman Sicily, the Republic of Venice, the Byzantine Empire and 'The Popes: A History'. [Listener: Christopher Sykes]

TRANSCRIPT: We finished with Denmark and we went briefly to Norway, where the ship's company gave a party on-board and invited all the sort of local Norwegians. And I got talking to a perfectly ravishing girl who I really took to and invited her out to dinner the following night. And I said, 'Is there anywhere...? – it was in Kristiansand, the extreme south of Norway, and she said, 'Oh no, there are no very nice restaurants around here, but why don't we take a picnic up into the forest, into the woods, because they're so lovely at this time of year and it's blazing sunshine, you know, it'd be lovely. And we would just have a lovely walk in the woods and a picnic.' So, I was looking forward to this enormously. She never turned up. The disappointment was deep. Anyway, I was very much hoping to lose my long-preserved virginity, but I failed. And so that was my last recollection of Norway.

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