Quarto. Pencil on paper. Three (single side) leaves, with a covering note on lined paper ‘My dear ?Jeff This, the original draft of 'The Christ Child at Christmas', of which the first page appears to have been written on blotting paper, is to wish you a very happy Christmas and New Year. Yours affectionately, John Drinkwater, Highgate, Christmas 1930'.

John Drinkwater (1882-1937) was an English poet, playwright, and critic. He is remembered best as a part of literary group the Dymock Poets, alongside contemporaries Robert Frost, Edward Thomas, and Rupert Brooke.

‘The Christ child at Christmas’ was the first poem in Drinkwater’s collection Christmas Poems (London, 1931), illustrated by E.H. Shepherd and published by Sidgwick and Jackson. This copy of the manuscript draft, which includes numerous pencilled corrections, was almost certainly presented by the author to his long-time secretary Miss Winifred Gwyn-Jeffreys.