CHRISTMAS WITH GILES, GRANDMA AND THE FAMILY – BARRY VENNING

Giles once said that his creation, Grandma Giles – that black-clad battle-axe – was his ‘perfect instrument for getting away with murder’. She allowed him to say things through his cartoons that he was too polite to say in person. She helped him poke fun at authority in all its forms, from traffic wardens to his employers at the Daily Express. Giles’s admirers included Prince Philip, Sir Malcolm Sargent, Eric Morecambe and Tommy Cooper. Giles not only gave us a remarkable picture of a half-century of British life, he was also, as his editor John Gordon said, ‘a genius…with the common touch’.