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He brings these editions out most Christmases, selections of poetry and prose related to the season. I've often given them as gifts. Most amusing.
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Christmas Crackers
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Over the last 20 years, the author of this book had been sending out Christmas crackers - a commonplace selection of prose and poetry - to his friends instead of Christmas cards. What began as a personal choice of literary odds and ends has now become a substantial collection. Assembled here are the crackers from the second decade, featuring subjects as varied as pig-sticking and the Papacy, from contributors as diverse as Nelson and Freya Stark.
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Genres
336 pages, Paperback
First published January 1,1990
This edition
- Format
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336 pages, Paperback
- Published
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January 1, 1993 by Penguin Books
- ISBN
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9780140131055
- ASIN
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0140131051
- Language
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English
About the author
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John Julius Norwich was born in London and served in the Royal Navy before receiving a degree in French and Russian at New College, Oxford. After graduation, he joined the Foreign Service and served in Belgrade, Beirut, and as a member of British delegation to the Disarmament Conference in Geneva. In 1954, he inherited the title of Viscount Norwich. In 1964, he resigned from the Foreign Service to become a writer. He was a historian, travel writer, and television personality.
His books included The Normans in the South, A History of Venice, The Italian World, Venice: A Traveller's Companion, 50 Years of Glyndebourne: An Illustrated History, A Short History of Byzantium, Absolute Monarchs: A History of the Papacy, Sicily: An Island at the Crossroads of History, and A History of France. He and H. C. Robbins Landon wrote Five Centuries of Music in Venice.
Norwich was the host of the BBC radio panel game My Word! from 1978 to 1982. He wrote and presented more than 30 television documentaries including Maestro, The Fall of Constantinople, Napoleon's Hundred Days, Cortés and Montezuma, Maximilian of Mexico, The Knights of Malta, The Treasure Houses of Britain, and The Death of the Prince Imperial in the Zulu War.
In 1993, he was appointed CVO for having curated an exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum to mark the 40th anniversary of the Queen's accession to the throne. In 2015, he was awarded the Biographers' Club award for his lifetime service to biography. He died on June 1, 2018 at the age of 88.
His books included The Normans in the South, A History of Venice, The Italian World, Venice: A Traveller's Companion, 50 Years of Glyndebourne: An Illustrated History, A Short History of Byzantium, Absolute Monarchs: A History of the Papacy, Sicily: An Island at the Crossroads of History, and A History of France. He and H. C. Robbins Landon wrote Five Centuries of Music in Venice.
Norwich was the host of the BBC radio panel game My Word! from 1978 to 1982. He wrote and presented more than 30 television documentaries including Maestro, The Fall of Constantinople, Napoleon's Hundred Days, Cortés and Montezuma, Maximilian of Mexico, The Knights of Malta, The Treasure Houses of Britain, and The Death of the Prince Imperial in the Zulu War.
In 1993, he was appointed CVO for having curated an exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum to mark the 40th anniversary of the Queen's accession to the throne. In 2015, he was awarded the Biographers' Club award for his lifetime service to biography. He died on June 1, 2018 at the age of 88.
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More gleanings from the wide-ranging reading and well-connected correspondence of Norwich and his glittering circle, this time a little more ready to run over a page in length, though seldom by much. And when they do, as in Michael Frayn's olive-inspired Shakespeare pastiche ("The Chesters Leicesters and the Leicesters Chesters, Lord Chester, thus, the proof runs clear, is me, and Ursula, Lord Bicester, his own sister"), the extra space is almost always more than justified. Although the exceptions include Clytamenestra's correspondence as 'found' by Maurice Baring, ten pages of sub-Pooter recasting of the Matter of Greece as a middle class family scandal. Such rare clunkers aside, at times the material is simply beautiful, as when quoting Churchill on his plans for the afterlife; elsewhere it's shareable content done old-style (I am of an age also to remember the intervening iterations as fax, floppy disk and email forward). The title notwithstanding, the content is rarely festive, though occasional hints of tinsel do creep in, as when the 1982 Cracker offers a lovely poem reworking the lyrics of the 12 Days Of Christmas.
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Every bit as good as 1970-1979.
Having said that, I'm not sure that the ENTIRE text of Kipling's "The Mary Gloster", good as it is, isn't just an eensy weensy little bit excessively long to include in either a christmas cracker or a commonplace book.
Having said that, I'm not sure that the ENTIRE text of Kipling's "The Mary Gloster", good as it is, isn't just an eensy weensy little bit excessively long to include in either a christmas cracker or a commonplace book.
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