Image taken from St.Osyth Parish Council

There aren’t many illustrators synonymous with Christmas in quite the same way as Raymond Briggs. Every year children cry over the melted remains of The Snowman and his Father Christmas can be found miserably bemoaning  “Another Blooming Christmas!” As grumpy as Briggs can be though, his combination of tenderness, genial humour and honesty seems to strike a chord with the wistful British.

Briggs was born in Wimbledon in 1934 to a milkman named Ernest and his mother Ethel who’s relationship together would eventually be documented by Briggs in the wonderful graphic novel, Ethel & Ernest. Despite being discouraged by his father to pursue art, dismissing it as an unprofitable career, he enrolled at the age of 15 to Wimbledon School of Art and later joined the Slade. Briggs enjoyed life classes but never felt inspired by much else and so turned his hand to illustration. Initially he was illustrating for advertising, magazines and newspapers but eventually found it was drawing for children’s books which he truly enjoyed.

He found steady work but soon began to feel stifled by the lack of exciting books coming out. Unable to shake the feeling he could do better, he wrote his own entitled, The Strange House in 1961. Briggs made his first critical success in 1966 with The Mother Goose Treasury which earned him the Kate Greenaway medal and in 1973 he published Father Christmas which won him further awards and the attention of television executives. There is a drawing in Father Christmas of the house Raymond shared with his first wife, Jean Taprell Clark. She can be seen upstairs in bed in this cosy domestic scene. Sadly Jean, who suffered with schizophrenia, died two months after the publication of the book from leukaemia, the poignancy of which is something Briggs doesn’t shy away from.

After Father Christmas came the excellent Fungus the Bogeymen (1977) which also adopted the same comic strip format and for which Briggs scoured the dictionary looking for words that were “bogey-like”. In 1978 Briggs published The Snowman which has since been transformed into every kind of medium and who’s smiley frosted face can be seen on all manner of items including plates, umbrellas and scarfs. Briggs himself owns a heap of Snowman memorabilia.

Taken from The Guardian

As well as children’s books, Briggs has produced adult graphic novels. When the Wind Blows (1982) confronts nuclear war and The Tin-Pot Foreign General and The Old Iron Woman (1984) takes a stab at Maggie Thatcher and the Falklands. This is what I really enjoy about Briggs, he’s essentially a children’s illustrator that doesn’t sugar the pill. In 1993, Briggs was named The Children’s Author of the Year and his novel Ethel and Ernst won Best Illustrated Book in the 1999 British Book Awards. He currently resides in Westmeston in Sussex and continues to work.

Resources

Bloomin’ Christmas from The Guardian

Audio Slideshow from The Guardian

Gentleman Briggs from Toonhound

Raymond Briggs