Whitaker’s Almanack 1997 129th edition

In the dark days, when county sub‐branch libraries were county sub‐branch libraries, and not community cultural centres, and when your reviewer first entered the profession, there were three quick reference works always to hand on the enquiry desk (which quadrupled up as the readers’ admission desk, the in‐counter and the out‐counter): Whitaker’s Almanack, Gardner’s Sequels, and Granger’s Index To Poetry. Not always in the latest edition, you understand ‐ they were the prerogative of fully‐fledged branch libraries ‐ but hand‐downs from these privileged and distantly remote collections. Whitaker’s Almanack could satisfy almost any enquiry; Sequels was absolutely...