A Christmas poem, Bethlehem,  by the poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy, appeared in the Guardian’s Review section on Saturday 21 December. It refers to the “small, raw cry of a new life”, and goes on: “one wept at a miracle; another / was hoping it might be so; / others ran, / daft, shouting, to boast in the waking streets. / Wise men swayed on camels out of the East.” Bethlehem was published earlier this year by Picador, with illustrations by Alice Stevenson. In 2009 Duffy published another Christmas poetry book, Mrs Scrooge, illustrated by Posy Simmonds, which told how Scrooge’s widow protested against consumerism outside supermarkets, before being visited by the ghosts of Christmas.