For thirty years John Julius Norwich was been sending out Christmas Crackers - personal selections of poetry, prose and literary odds and ends - to his friends instead of Christmas cards. This, the third volume of his wonderfully offbeat and varied collections, brings together a multitude of treasures that includes an appearance by the ghost of Wilfred Owen; Adam and Eve conversing in palindromes; the story of Oedipus told in car number plates; and David Livingstone getting lost on the railway.