Annals of the Hoare house: GILES - a British Christmas tradition

The immortal cartoonist, Carl Giles, who died in 1995, remains a British institution 25 years later.

For those of us of a certain age, who grew up with him, he became such a fixture of Lord Beaverbrook's flagship newspaper, The Daily Express, that many a reader, not least both the Queen and Prince Philip, subscribed to it largely on his account, collecting his original drawings whenever he was willing to part with them (which he wasn't always: Prince Philip even wrote the forward to his memorial tribute, The Ultimate Giles, of which more anon).

But he was best known for his Giles Annuals, as much a Christmas tradition for grown-ups as Rupert was for children, and equally voraciously collected. The familiar, elongated, floppy format, which featured his output from the year before, was a bastion of British bookselling - as recognisable a shape under the tree as panettone or Christmas pud - selling by the hundreds of thousands right across the country.

Lord Beaverbrook's son, Sir Maxwell Aitken the second, was a close friend of your correspondent's family, and had a handsome house just outside Ipswich in Suffolk ("Swippich" to both our houses), itself Giles' hometown, close to where we lived ourselves. He and Carl became fast friends, as indeed did his beloved wife, Joan. On one occasion, having lunched with him at the Hyde Park Hotel (also part of the Beaverbrook empire), Max took him for one of his traditional walks - a Beaverbrook tradition - along Piccadilly, past the legendary Jack Barclay's emporium - in those days, the pre-eminent London dealer in Bentleys and Rolls-Royces. Knowing Carl's affection for motorcars, he entered the premises, and asked him which car was his own favourite. Carl immediately pointed out a Bentley Continental. "Have you got a return ticket to Ipswich? Give it to me." He did. "Right. I'll keep this and you go home in that," and Max walked out.

The charm of Giles' cartoons, despite their vintage, is their timelessness. His wartime output, in particular, might seem dated at this point; but even now very little is obsolete when put in context by his famous explanatory placards and side-swipes.

His legacy, at least in book form, is the work of a friend and colleague at The Daily Express by the name of Peter Tory. In three books, entitled Giles at War; "Giles: a Life in Cartoons"; and the posthumous "The Ultimate Giles: an Illustrated Tribute to the Legendary Cartoonist" (the latter including 300 of Giles' favourite cartoons), the life and legend of this warm and merry man is fully and affectionately portrayed for successive generations.

All we need now is a biography proper!

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