Touched and flattered though I was to be cited in your leader column concerning A Christmas Carol, I must, on Dickens’ behalf, protest against the notion that Scrooge simply indulges in “a Christmas morning giveaway” (The Guardian view on A Christmas Carol: a tale of redemption for an irredeemable age, 15 December). True, he offers the charity gentleman a sum of money that makes that good man gasp with disbelief, but he goes on to promise Bob Cratchit a rise in salary, offering to look after his struggling family. He becomes, we’re told, “a second father [to Tiny Tim] … as good a friend, as good a master, and as good a man, as the good old city knew, or any other good old city, town, or borough, in the good old world.”
In other words, he becomes a contributing member of society, putting his unquestioned gifts to work on behalf of his fellow human beings. This is not about personal redemption, it’s about becoming part of the human pyramid that is the essence of our communal existence.
Simon Callow
London
• Do you have a photograph you’d like to share with Guardian readers? If so, please click here to upload it. A selection will be published in our Readers’ best photographs galleries and in the print edition on Saturdays.
