Introduction by Joanna Lumley

We have been giving the Giles annual to my father at Christmas for the past thirty five years. He invariably receives it with the same amazed cry: ‘Giles! How splendid’. He knows it’s as much for all the family as it is for him.

What I love best about Giles’ work is the way he marries the stupendously drawn backdrops with the cartoon characters which occupy centre stage. With the long-perfected skill of the animator, he shows that two quite separate styles of drawing thrive one on top of the other.

From Giles’ backdrops I have developed a passion for his England in summertime: hot empty suburban streets shadowed by wonderfully drawn trees; sodden cricket pitches, fly-ridden picnics and seedy boarding houses. Giles draws winters like no-one else, thick snow settling on ledges and railways, dark skies over rain-lashed harbours and empty railway stations, Whitehall in a blizzard. Hordes of people have come to life through Giles’ pen, each one a complete individual drawn with acute observation. Distant figures are treated in extravagant detail, and all his pictures reward closer scrutiny.

The Giles family is now legendary: Mother bogged down with the housework, Vera’s dripping nose, Dad’s laconic asides, anarchic children, baleful dogs filching food and the immortal Grandma, mouth snapped shut like a turtle, coal-sack body clutching padlocked handbag. She and the skull-headed Chalkie are my favourites (as children we used to practice doing Chalkie’s cadaverous leer), but I have a special affection for George Junior, the anxious ping-pong ball of a baby to whom all manner of dreadful things happen.

Salutations, great Giles! and thank you for another year of your incomparable wit and artistic genius.

44.4.9

44.5.14

44.7.2

44.7.30

44.10.8

45.1.21

45.5.23

45.11.11

45.12.23

46.1.13

46.3.5

46.3.5

46.3.24

46.3.28

46.6.9

46.9.8

46.11.24

46.12.1

46.12.29

47.2.6

47.12.16

47.12.18

47.12.28

48.4.30

48.5.2

48.9.10

48.12.28

49.4.3

49.5.17

49.7.29

50.3.19

50.12.12

54.12.12

50.12.17

51.2.27

51.8.7

51.8.28

51.12.9

51.12.13

52.2.26

52.3.11

52.3.13

52.4.7

52.3.12

52.4.16

52.5.6

52.9.1

53.1.18

53.2.7

53.8.16

53.8.23

53.10.8

53.11.15

54.1.14

54.4.2

54.4.18

54.6.10

54.6.27

54.12.24

54.12.28

55.1.19

55.4.24

55.6.18

55.7.17

55.8.13

55.10.9

56.5.31

56.6.2

56.6.6

56.6.8

56.6.21

56.9.6

56.10.16

57.7.25

57.9.15

57.11.12

58.2.27

58.3.27

58.3.1

58.3.3

58.4.6

58.4.29

58.5.6

58.5.11

58.6.8

58.6.22

58.6.27

58.6.29

58.7.9

58.7.27

58.7.24

58.7.29

58.8.3

58.8.10

58.9.16

58.10.3

58.12.21

59.1.2

59.1.18

59.1.22

59.2.15

59.3.3

59.4.19

59.5.10

59.6.7

59.7.30

59.9.3

59.9.10

59.9.24