First edition, presentation copy inscribed by the author to John Julius Norwich on the front free endpaper, "John Julius & Mollie, from Steven, 1992, A single cracker for Christmas". John Julius Cooper, 2nd viscount Norwich (b. 1929) is a hugely prolific English writer and television presenter. This is a particularly close association, as Runciman and Norwich had very similar careers: both educated at Eton, both dabbling in the Foreign Service, both concentrating as historians upon similar fields. Runciman's primacy as a historian of the Crusades, the Greek and Byzantine world, and Norman Sicily is well known. Norwich for his part wrote his first book on Mount Athos (where Runciman was one of very few outsiders permitted to visit), others on Norman Sicily and Venice and numerous works on Byzantium. He is also remembered for his series of Christmas Cracker anthologies (since 1970), hence Runciman's inscription. Paradise Regained was a short story written in 1935, but re-discovered and privately printed for distribution among friends. Runciman's notes in his foreword, "The terrain [Kurdistan] in which most of it is set has of recent years been the scene of bitter warfare. I cannot recommend travellers to attempt to follow in my heroine's footsteps. But maybe Paradise has survived and is waiting still to be regained." A poignant observation, in the light of still more recent happenings in Kurdish lands.
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