Mention the words “Christmas crackers,” and the name that comes to mind is John Julius Norwich.
This is because for over 50 years, he has been sending out his Christmas Crackers—a personal collection of quirky quotes and literary odds and ends—to his friends instead of a Christmas card.
Every decade, he would publish them as an anthology. They became bestsellers. I have the complete set. They are gems.
His last Christmas Crackers 2019 was published posthumously by his daughter, Artemis Cooper, herself a prolific writer, in Cairo in the War, 1939-1945, and Paris After the Liberation, 1944-1949, after his death in June 2018.
Besides the Christmas Crackers anthologies, Norwich also published “An English Christmas” (2017), which gathered the best writing on this most memorable time of the year.
LWH, 11 December 2025