A Christmas Special - A Special Christmas

Merry Christmas! Have a wonderful day!

Today isn't the usual strip - it's a Christmas Special! Hope you enjoy it.

Acknowledgements, and eternal reverence, to Raymond Briggs's classic, The Snowman.

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Not the Smartest Monkey

Can you guess what it is yet?

Quoting The Office: 'It's probably a bottle or something' - 'Oh you think so Gareth?' - 'The shape!'

The Santa Suicides

Partly inspired by a traumatic episode of my cousin's childhood.

What's on your Christmas letter? Is it less depressing than Jenny's?

Oxbridge Mums

Just wait till the neighbours come around for tea with their son who's at Harvard.

The Monkey Has a Name!

Thank you so much for the avalanche of names here and on Facebook following the plea from Tim's monkey to finally BE GIVEN A NAME!

There were so many great suggestions that I couldn't just pick one, so I picked my seven favourite of all:



Humphrey - by Mathilde
Hamilcar - by Audrey
Emmanuel - by Agathe
Bubbles - by Richard
Oscar - by Mathilde
Haiku - by Becca
Tennessee - by Françoise & Jonathan

Yes, Mathilde did have a slight advantage with two names picked, but she submitted tons and for that reason she deserves un gros bisou.

Having put all these wonderful names in a Celebrations box...



...I asked an innocent hand to pick one at random!



And after the tension of this crucial moment, the innocent hand finally chose one of the little blue papers, and all became clear:

The winner is...



Congratulations, Audrey! Send me an email with your postal address in it and your choice of prize (A, B, C or D). Ah, there's just one little thing you need to know about prizes A, B and C... unfortunately they're out of stock. Bad luck! still, you'll get the drawing.

A big thank you to everyone who took part in the contest!

Personal Overstatement

Personal Statements, or the art of bragging humbly about extraordinary but half-imaginary achievements that demonstrate without a shadow of a doubt but always very politely that you are way specialer than the specialest of the rest of the equally quite exceptional but excessively modest fellow applicants.

Take It Philosophically

What's the point of children's books if they don't teach children the harsh realities of life and death?

If you haven't yet done so - or even if you have - submit a name for Tim's Monkey on this page!

Give the Monkey a Name!

Give the monkey a name... and if it gets picked, you get to choose one of these 4 amazing gifts:

A) Eternal Life
B) A night with your favourite film star
C) The Cloak of Invisibility
D) An original drawing of Jenny, Tim and the Monkey

Note: gifts A, B and C subject to availability.

The name has to be: 1) understandable in English, and 2), NOT 'Darwin', even if you think it's really funny. You can submit as many names as you want. Contest closes on December 14th.

So long, farewell, auf wiedersehen adieu...

It's the end of term! but not the end of the doodles. Jenny and Tim don't live too far from each other so they might be able to see each other during the holiays...

Cindelirious

Unfortunately for Sophie, it wasn't Prince Harry but a second-year Art Historian at Madgalene called Ben.

Complaint from random internet user: 'But he doesn't look AT ALL like Prince Harry!!!'

Dear random internet user, it's called artistic licence. It can also be called 'being absolutely unable to draw real people'. See previous example.