Personal Life
Norton has stated that he felt "out of place" growing up in Ireland; his family are Protestant yet Ireland is overwhelmingly Catholic. Norton took part in the TV programme, Who Do You Think You Are?, to trace his ancestry. It was discovered that his family were originally planters sent over from England to take over Irish land. Some members of his family had fought for the British Monarchy during the Irish Rebellion of 1798 and taken part in a massacre of Catholics in Carnew Castle. Another member of his family was later killed in battle by the United Irishmen. Norton said he was comforted to find out that his family had resided in Ireland for generations.
In 1988 while living in London, Norton was mugged, beaten and stabbed by a group of attackers on the street. He says he lost half his blood and nearly died, and he was hospitalised for two and a half weeks.
Norton owns a holiday home in Ahakista, County Cork, which is near to where he grew up, in Bandon. The house has a private beach and overlooks Dunmanus Bay.
Norton's dog (as seen to the right) is a labradoodle, called Peach.
Read more about this topic: Graham Norton
Famous quotes containing the words personal and/or life:
“The pursuit of Fashion is the attempt of the middle class to co-opt tragedy. In adopting the clothing, speech, and personal habits of those in straitened, dangerous, or pitiful circumstances, the middle class seeks to have what it feels to be the exigent and nonequivocal experiences had by those it emulates.”
—David Mamet (b. 1947)
“As life grows more terrible, its literature grows more terrible.”
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)