Introduction by - Eric Sykes

Being asked to write this foreword is like Johann Sebastian Bach asking me to turn the pages while he plays. Sadly Johann is no longer with us but thank God Giles still manages to turn out his masterpieces.

We all have or have had, or known, someone with relations similar to his family. Incidentally dietitians will be amazed to learn that Grandma although she eats plenty of what she likes hasn’t put on a pound in weight for nearly fifty years. But then I don’t want any of them to change because to me they are a microcosm of all the best of Britain in the last century: the church, pompous old vicar, the pub landlord and the regulars, the streets and homes, it isn’t just nostalgia, it is now. Laughter is a good feeling and Giles engenders more of this therapy in one cartoon than most television comedy shows evoke in half an hour and this is no accident: there is a depth and a wealth of understanding in each brilliant creation. And here we are with another December upon us. No longer it seems do we have robins and thick white snow for the festive season, nowadays we are more likely to be lolling in the back garden in seventy degrees of sunshine, but as long as we can have Giles Christmas Annual beside us, a pint of good ale and a white hanky knotted over the bald patch we shan’t do too badly.

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