Over the last 20 years John Julius Norwich has been sending his friends Christmas crackers - a commonplace selection of prose and poetry - instead of Christmas cards. What began as a haphazard choice of literary odds and ends has become a collection to be nurtured and cultivated. A collection of crackers from the first ten years was published in 1980. Assembled here are crackers from a second decade; from sources as diverse as Charles Dodgson and Freya Stark, Nelson and Catallus, on subjects as various as pigsticking and the Papacy, the culinary preparation of Puffins and the worst ever novel. There should be something here for every taste and mood, making another diverting and wide-ranging anthology.