“…It was on the afternoon of Christmas Eve, and I was in Mrs Protheroe’s garden, waiting for cats, with her son Jim…”. Every adult and every childs needs to have Thomas’s words and images – of firemen and snow, blustery uncles and tiny aunts, imaginary fur trappers and pudding – deep in their souls. He’s good on presents too, the Useful (“…books that told me everything about the wasp, except why…”) and the Useless (a false nose). With Ellen Raskin’s wonderful woodcuts, first used in the 1959 edition. A small and perfectly formed snowball of joy and humour.