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Christmas Crackers
Christmas Crackers: Being Ten Commonplace Selections, 1970-1979
For ten years John Julius Norwich has been sending out Christmas Crackers – a commonplace selection of prose and poetry – to his friends instead of a Christmas card. What had started off for him as a haphazard choice of literary odds and ends has now become a collection, something to be nurtured and cultivated. Here for the first time are all the Crackers in one volume, making a wholly delightful, amusing, and wide-ranging anthology.
There is something here for every taste – from palindromes to epitaphs, from Pepys and Gibbon to Dorothy Parker. This is a book which no bedside table should be without.
There is something here for every taste – from palindromes to epitaphs, from Pepys and Gibbon to Dorothy Parker. This is a book which no bedside table should be without.
- GenresHumorAnthologies
285 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1980
43 people want to read
About the author
John Julius Norwich
155 books676 followersJohn Julius Norwich was an English historian, writer, and broadcaster known for his engaging books on European history and culture. The son of diplomat and politician Duff Cooper and socialite Lady Diana Manners, he received an elite education at Eton, Strasbourg, and Oxford, and served in the Foreign Service before dedicating himself to writing full-time.
He authored acclaimed works on Norman Sicily, Venice, Byzantium, the Mediterranean, and the Papacy, as well as popular anthologies like Christmas Crackers. He was also a familiar voice and face in British media, presenting numerous television documentaries and radio programs. A champion of cultural heritage, he supported causes such as the Venice in Peril Fund and the World Monuments Fund.
Norwich’s wide-ranging output, wit, and accessible style made him a beloved figure in historical writing.
He authored acclaimed works on Norman Sicily, Venice, Byzantium, the Mediterranean, and the Papacy, as well as popular anthologies like Christmas Crackers. He was also a familiar voice and face in British media, presenting numerous television documentaries and radio programs. A champion of cultural heritage, he supported causes such as the Venice in Peril Fund and the World Monuments Fund.
Norwich’s wide-ranging output, wit, and accessible style made him a beloved figure in historical writing.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
December 17, 2012
John Julius Norwich (Viscount Norwich) has lived a rich and varied life. The son of Duff Cooper, a British politician of the 1930s and 1940s, and of renowned society beauty Diana Cooper, he has been a diplomat and a historian. He has written books on Byzantium and Venice and his autobiography, "Trying to Please", was well received. Years ago, he began collecting literary odds and ends and to have them published each Christmas in a small collection. His intention was to give copies of each collection to friends as presents for the festive season. The collections became a quiet success - they are to this day still published annually and are available in good bookshops. This book - "Christmas Crackers" - is a compendium of the collections published during the 1970s. It is a very enjoyable read.
What I like about this book is the sheer arbitrariness of its content. Entries include amusing palindromes, an extract from the writing of Albrecht Durer, a one-line quotation from the Second Book of Corinthians in the Bible and an excerpt from Dickens's Martin Chuzzlewit. Unlike many anthologies of this kind, much of the content will be unfamiliar or not very familiar to the average reader. There is a mixture of light-hearted items and more serious stuff. I particularly like some of the palindromes that Lord Norwich has unearthed. These include: "Norma is as selfless as I am, Ron" and "Sex at noon taxes"! He even manages to include one in Latin!
"Christmas Crackers" is a book to dip into when one has a few spare minutes, for example while waiting for a bus or a train. It is a veritable treasure trove of prose, poetry and other literary bits and pieces. And it's very entertaining. 8/10.
What I like about this book is the sheer arbitrariness of its content. Entries include amusing palindromes, an extract from the writing of Albrecht Durer, a one-line quotation from the Second Book of Corinthians in the Bible and an excerpt from Dickens's Martin Chuzzlewit. Unlike many anthologies of this kind, much of the content will be unfamiliar or not very familiar to the average reader. There is a mixture of light-hearted items and more serious stuff. I particularly like some of the palindromes that Lord Norwich has unearthed. These include: "Norma is as selfless as I am, Ron" and "Sex at noon taxes"! He even manages to include one in Latin!
"Christmas Crackers" is a book to dip into when one has a few spare minutes, for example while waiting for a bus or a train. It is a veritable treasure trove of prose, poetry and other literary bits and pieces. And it's very entertaining. 8/10.
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December 2, 2020Not really a very festive book, and indeed I've been dipping into it through the year. Christmas was just when John Julius Norwich sent his friends these collections of oddments which had caught his eye through the preceding year, with this collection covering the 1970s. A sort of shared commonplace book, but one whose appeal comes from its compiler, his wide reading and his wit, his ability to spot something worth sharing. Some of the sources may seem obvious, but even when Norwich quotes the likes of Austen's Emma, the passage he chooses is not one of the bits one always sees quoted from Emma, and is worth the holding up for individual consideration. More often he ranges into far odder corners, dictionaries and letters and all the furniture of a superlatively well-stocked library and mind. Many are beautiful, some are just strange (such as Leigh Hunt's sonnet to a fish, and its equally disobliging reply), and a fair few (not least the Paris Opera's mistranslated synopsis for Carmen) are outright hilarious. It is a book full of unknown unknowns, like which Biblical patriarchs Queen Victoria would not deign to meet in the next life. Elsewhere he offers his suggestion for literature's most boring anecdote - which is quite poor, though I'd disqualify it from the title on grounds of its welcome brevity, and most of the selections here are a page or less, so it's a grand loo book.
My one complaint is that, in the lack of translations furnished, Norwich assumes a familiarity with French and Latin in their literary modes which my own skills don't quite merit – the gist I follow, the nuances less so, and these selections are often all about the nuance. Still, that's one grumble set against a heap of delights (and inevitably, I was particularly pleased to find him familiar with Dunsany's work). You might think it a stretch to count it as an authored work, but his personality comes through so strongly on every page, not just in the annotations, but simply through the picture the collection forms of a mind (I'm reminded of the Senegalese expression for death, where they say that the deceased's library has burned). And there are odd longer pieces of his own writing, not least the collaborative sonnet, improvised back and forth with 'Paddy' Leigh-Fermor over lunch at Chantilly (imagine being a fly on the wall for that meal!). But above all it cements the sense, always there when I read his work, that it must have been an utter delight to know John Julius Norwich. I think my favourite of all the excerpts here might be Burne-Jones' description of his own work: "I mean by picture a beautiful romantic dream of something that never was, never will be – in a light better than any light that ever shone – in a land no one can define or remember, only desire – and from the forms divinely beautiful." Which all the same sums up the Christmas scenes in which I picture Norwich and those lucky enough to have been in his circle and receiving these.
My one complaint is that, in the lack of translations furnished, Norwich assumes a familiarity with French and Latin in their literary modes which my own skills don't quite merit – the gist I follow, the nuances less so, and these selections are often all about the nuance. Still, that's one grumble set against a heap of delights (and inevitably, I was particularly pleased to find him familiar with Dunsany's work). You might think it a stretch to count it as an authored work, but his personality comes through so strongly on every page, not just in the annotations, but simply through the picture the collection forms of a mind (I'm reminded of the Senegalese expression for death, where they say that the deceased's library has burned). And there are odd longer pieces of his own writing, not least the collaborative sonnet, improvised back and forth with 'Paddy' Leigh-Fermor over lunch at Chantilly (imagine being a fly on the wall for that meal!). But above all it cements the sense, always there when I read his work, that it must have been an utter delight to know John Julius Norwich. I think my favourite of all the excerpts here might be Burne-Jones' description of his own work: "I mean by picture a beautiful romantic dream of something that never was, never will be – in a light better than any light that ever shone – in a land no one can define or remember, only desire – and from the forms divinely beautiful." Which all the same sums up the Christmas scenes in which I picture Norwich and those lucky enough to have been in his circle and receiving these.
February 20, 2018
A wonderful anthology of the unusual, the quaint and the curious. Pepys, palindromes, epitaphs and much more. A new delight at every turn of the page.
JJN assumes that his reader, like him, will need no translation for texts in French or Latin. Other tongues are Englished as required ...
JJN assumes that his reader, like him, will need no translation for texts in French or Latin. Other tongues are Englished as required ...
October 11, 2015
I've had this sitting on my shelf for the past 25 years, occasionally dipping into it, but only read it for the first time from cover to cover a couple of years ago. It is a true miscellany, the product of a broad education and voracious reading, with snippets ranging from the guidance notes for the Montgomery Alabama bus integration campaign to pallindromes and a multiplicity of French quotations, which I could have done without given my appalling French... Much to challenge, amuse and perplex. Will seek out subsequent anthologies but until then I will probably keep returning to this one.
February 4, 2015
My copy reprinted, with additional material, 1981.
Both thoughtful and intriguing, favourites of mine in this assortment include Lewis Carroll's poem "Jabberwocky" which IS even better recited in German (pg 214); and (pg.194) a quote of Winston Churchill’s which I shall separately post to Goodreads Quotations.
Both thoughtful and intriguing, favourites of mine in this assortment include Lewis Carroll's poem "Jabberwocky" which IS even better recited in German (pg 214); and (pg.194) a quote of Winston Churchill’s which I shall separately post to Goodreads Quotations.
January 27, 2014
This is a delightful and unusual anthology of poems, anecdotes, and quotes the author has come across in his historical studies. They are frequently hilarious, and the book is a quick read. Unfortunately, the book has only one "cracker" per page, which leaves most of the pages sadly empty. A quick, amusing, and rewarding read.
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February 7, 2016I just thought of a delightful joke: To what does the scrabble thief attribute his success? He's got away with words. This I think is worthy of any cracker.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews