Twenty-six volumes: 1984, 1986-1994, 1996-1997, 1999-2006, 2009, 2013-2017 of the author's annual gathering selected from his commonplace books; a prefatory note sketches in some background, 'John Julius Norwich produced his first Cracker in 1970, as a little Christmas gift for his friends. The format never changed: each one contained twenty-four pieces ... As a fresh Cracker appeared every year, friends and strangers began sending their own literary plums ...'; a modest alternative record of the last 35 years. The last volume, the 49th, was issued recently, the proofs corrected by the author from his hospital bed before his death in June.
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