''Bah,''said Scrooge, ''Humbug.''

But that was before he was presented with visions of Christmas Past, Christmas Present and Christmas Yet to Come, which gave him a whole new lease of life:

''I am as light as a feather, I am as happy as an angel, I am as merry as a schoolboy. I am as giddy as a drunken man. A merry Christmas to everybody! A happy New Year to all the World!''

Old Ebenezer Scrooge is too mean to spend money on coals for the fire in his counting-house, where his clerk Bob Cratchit shivers in the winter cold. Declining an invitation to his nephew Fred’s Christmas party, and refusing to give money to charity, he is ready for his usual miserly Christmas in his cold, dingy apartment. But that night, the ghost of his dead partner Jacob Marley appears and tells him to expect a visit from three spirits over the next three nights . . .

Liberty of London and Faber & Faber both offer peerless quality and unrivalled originality. Liberty of London''s patterned, print and floral fabrics are world famous. This partnership brings together the best writers with one of the foremost design teams to create books that will be coveted by artistic shoppers and book lovers the world over.