The Perfect Christmas Present

Book excerpt: No two people see anything the same way. No two people see even something so familiar as Christmas the same way. It all depends on your point of view. These verses - honest, sad, dry, touching, happy, angry, funny, tragic, contented, smug, mischievous, complacent, wistful, cocky, baffled, fatalistic, grateful, sceptical - tell us how people feel when Christmas comes, or what they do, or how they manage. They tell it as they see it. The drawings tell it as you may see it. It will give all of us some food for thought. The author: Berwick Coates was educated at Kingston Grammar School, and studied History at Cambridge. Since then, he has been at various times an Army officer, writer, artist, lecturer, careers adviser, games coach, and teacher of History, English, Latin, and Swahili. He has published eight books. He is now the archivist at West Buckland School in Devon.