Author Description

First published in 1868, Whitaker's is the ultimate single-volume reference source--packed with thousands of facts, figures, overviews and statistics relating to the UK and the world. Whitaker's 2018 contains a comprehensive explanation of every aspect of national and local government infrastructure in the UK, astronomical and tidal data for 2018, guides to UK law, education and taxation, overviews of the water, energy and transport industries, essential calendar information, chapters on royalty and peerage, MPs, government departments and public bodies, directory listings of societies and institutions, sports results and records, reviews of the year 2016–17--covering the arts, science, and politics--and monthly summaries of the year's news. Whitaker's is also an excellent introduction to world politics with in-depth profiles of international organisations, the European Union and every country of the world. Now in its 150th edition, the book is completely revised and updated every year with at least 60% of the contents--including maps, diagrams, and color infographics--newly compiled specifically for this edition. Our dedicated team of both in-house editors and specialist contributors spend a total of around 6,000 hours updating Whitaker's annually--this includes contacting thousands of individuals to update their own organization's details, researching information from official annual reports, and gathering statistics and facts from the most up-to-date authoritative sources available. Updated continually throughout the year around 2,000 hours of editorial time is dedicated to verifying every piece of information to ensure that, unlike collaborative online sources such as Wikipedia, all the material in Whitaker's is neutral and reliable. A totally unique combination of every aspect of UK infrastructure, current affairs, world politics, history, finance, astronomical data, and reviews of the year, "Whitaker's r