Whitaker's Almanack is a reference book, published annually in the United Kingdom. The book was originally published by J Whitaker & Sons from 1868 to 1997, then by The Stationery Office, from 2003 to 2010 by A & C Black and from 2011 by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc.
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The Almanack consists of articles, lists and tables on a wide range of subjects including education, the peerage, government departments, health and social issues, and the environment.
The largest section is the countries directory, which includes recent history, politics, economic information and culture overviews. Each edition also features a selection of critical essays focusing on events of the previous year. Extensive astronomical data covering the forthcoming year is published at the rear of the book.
Whitaker's Almanack is not an encyclopedia but more of a yearbook of contemporary matters and a directory of various establishments in the UK (such as clubs, public bodies and universities).
Whitaker's was prized enough that Winston Churchill took a personal interest in the continued publication of the book after its headquarters were destroyed in The Blitz; a copy is also sealed in Cleopatra's Needle on the north bank of the River Thames.
Each year's Almanack is published in two formats - the Standard Edition and a shortened Concise Edition. In previous years, a larger-format of the Standard Edition, bound in leather, was produced for libraries. Both editions were redesigned in 1993 and 2004 to increase the page size and improve legibility.
The Almanack's current Executive Editor is Ruth Northey, whilst former editor Hilary Marsden contributes to the "Countries of the World" section.
The current editorial team of Whitaker's Almanack who work alongside the Executive Editor are International Project Editor Joel Simons, UK Project Editor Nathan Joyce and Editorial Assistant Oli Lurie.
In the short story "A Holiday Task" by Saki, a titled amnesiac looks through the list of peers in Whitaker's in an unsuccessful attempt to remember who she is.
Whitaker's Almanack provides the key to a crucial book cipher message at the beginning of Arthur Conan Doyle's 1915 Sherlock Holmes novel The Valley of Fear.