Giving is good for everyone . . . and not just at Christmas

A guest opinion for the Financial Times.

Graham Tomlin

Graham is the Director of the Centre for Cultural Witness and a former Bishop of Kensington.

Christmas presents wrapped with red and white paper and string.

Freestocks on Unsplash.

Giving gifts sustains our communal life together. It keeps things in circulation, as they were meant to be. Taxation does that in a more systematic way, but gift giving is voluntary, engages our hearts, and creates a relationship between the giver and the recipient.

Read the full article on the Financial Times web site.

Registration is required and users can read four free articles a month.

Read now

Join with us - Behind the Seen

Seen & Unseen is free for everyone and is made possible through the generosity of our amazing community of supporters.

If you’re enjoying Seen & Unseen, would you consider making a gift towards our work?

Alongside other benefits (book discounts etc.), you’ll receive an extra fortnightly email from me sharing what I’m reading and my reflections on the ideas that are shaping our times.

Graham Tomlin

Editor-in-Chief

Find out more and sign up

Podcast

Podcasts

Seen & Unseen Aloud

4 August 2025

1 min read

Portofino, neurodiversity, and McGovern's Unforgivable.

Poverty amid the privileged, the issue of over-diagnosing, and a difficult drama to watch.

Natalie Garrett

Natalie produces and narrates The Seen & Unseen Aloud podcast. She's an Anglican minister and a trained actor.

Portofino harbour.

Peter Thomas, via Unsplash.

Listen to this episode

More about this episode

This week, George Pitcher takes us on our tour of the Portofino "bubble"; Henna Cundill has read Suzanne O'Sullivan's book and suggests we don't have an over-diagnosis problem, we have a society problem; and Henry Corbett describes Jimmy McGovern's brave storytelling in Unforgivable and asks whether there is such a thing as an unforgiveable sin.

Support this podcast

Since Spring 2023, thousands of people have enjoyed hundreds of podcast episodes and over 1,500 articles.

All for free.

This is made possible through the generosity of our amazing community of supporters.

If you enjoy Seen & Unseen Aloud, would you consider making a gift towards our work?

Do so by joining Behind The Seen. Alongside other benefits, you’ll receive an extra fortnightly email from me sharing my reading and reflections on the ideas that are shaping our times.

Graham Tomlin
Editor-in-Chief

Pledge now