Introduction by Dennis Norden, C.B.E.

Dear Giles,

Breakfast is reckoned to be a highly important meal, if only because so many wives get upset if you’re not home by then. For me, however, it comes at a time of day when my biorhythms are giving a practically nil reading. That’s why the only thing I would ever be prepared to say in its favour is that it brings the daily Giles cartoon. Over the years, his squat and malignant creations have done more to equip me for the day that lies ahead than any of the highly touted mixtures of wheat-chaff and bran.

I’d go further. As I grow older—which I now seem to do with increasing facility—there tend to be more and more mornings when you look through the newspaper and realise that the only credible figure left in British public life is Grandma.

For that reason, there will be those purchasers for whom this bunch of Giles cartoons will represent something of significant social value. If, on the other hand, all you get out of them is a succession of happily malicious giggles, that’s probably even more socially valuable.

Especially at breakfast time.