Thirty-nine volumes: A complete run from 1980 to 2018; 'John Julius Norwich (1929-2018), produced his first Cracker in 1970, as a little Christmas gift for his friends. The Cracker format never changed: twenty-four pieces, selected from the ever-expanding collections in his commonplace books, each with a different, mostly patterned, cover. As a fresh Cracker appeared every year, friends and strangers began sending him their own literary plums. He welcomed these additions with typical enthusiasm, generously crediting the contributor, starting little threads and themes and conversations – so that over the years, the Christmas cracker grew into an unofficial club, open to anyone who wanted to join.' (The introduction to the final volume.)
The crackers are an eclectic, modest, alternative record of individuals' activities, reading and listening for almost forty years, gleaned from signs for tourists, reports, obituaries, letters, dinner exchanges, titles, Shakespeare, opening sentences of books, the Bible, lists; shorter crackers: 'Sixteen kisses are mentioned in Jane Austen's novels, not one exchanged by a pair of lovers. Sex never intrudes.' (2017); 'And all dishevelled wandering stars' (John Keats, 2002); 'Our wines leave you nothing to hope for' (Swiss menu, 2006); 'How can one be sure / If true love will endure? / My thoughts this morning are / As tangled as my hair' (The Lady Horikawa, 12th century, 2009).
The last volume, the forty-ninth, was issued in 2018, the proofs corrected by the author from his hospital bed before his death in June.
'I am old. Nothing interests me now,
Moreover I am not very intelligent,
And my ideas have travelled no further
Than my feet. You ask me
What is the greatest happiness on earth?
It is to hear a young girl
Singing along the road.
After she has asked you the way.'
Wang Wei (thirteenth century), the last entry in the final volume.
