Raymond Briggs

The Snowman was first released as a picture book in 1978 - and has sold more than 5.5 million copies worldwide - before it was turned into a much-loved ...

All of us who had the privilege of working with him will miss him." A statement from his family said: "We know that Raymond's books were loved by and touched millions of people around the world, who will be sad to hear this news. "He played practical jokes and enjoyed them being played on him. He liked the Guardian editorial describing himself as an 'iconoclastic national treasure'." Thank you, Raymond." The show was made for Channel 4 and has since become a festive staple and shown every Christmas since.

"The Snowman,” a picture book which tells the story of a boy who makes a snowman who comes to life, sold millions worldwide and became an Oscar-nominated ...

In 1983, “The Snowman” was nominated for an Academy Award for best short film. Our thoughts are with his family and friends.— The Royal Mint (@RoyalMintUK) pic.twitter.com/gOavJjsLMd August 10, 2022 His partner of 40 years, Liz Benjamin, died in 2015. Mr. Briggs showed a keen interest in illustrating from a young age and soared to fame after creating “The Snowman,” which was first published in 1978. His wife, Jean Taprell Clark, died in 1973. Raymond Redvers Briggs was born in Wimbledon, London, on Jan. 18, 1934.

Raymond Briggs, the English illustrator and and author best known for writing The Snowman, has died at the age of 88, his publisher has announced.

And thank you for the memories.” Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner said: “Raymond Briggs brought so much magic and joy to so many. In a statement, Mr Briggs’ family said: “We know that Raymond’s books were loved by and touched millions of people around the world, who will be sad to hear this news. All of us who had the privilege of working with him will miss him.” A kindness, integrity and generosity run through all his books.” “He played practical jokes and enjoyed them being played on him.

He was also behind beloved children's books Father Christmas and Fungus The Bogeyman.

Start your Independent Premium subscription today. He played practical jokes and enjoyed them being played on him. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy policy and Terms of service apply. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy policy and Terms of service apply. By clicking ‘Register’ you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use, Cookie policy and Privacy notice. In February 2017, Briggs was honoured with the BookTrust Lifetime Achievement Award and the trust responded to news of his death by tweeting: “He will live on in his stunning, iconic books.”

Author and illustrator Raymond Briggs, best-known for the 1978 children's picture book The Snowman, has died aged 88. | ITV National News.

“He played practical jokes and enjoyed them being played on him. He liked the Guardian editorial describing himself as an ‘iconoclastic national treasure’.” He won numerous prizes across his career, including the Kurt Maschler Award, the Children’s Book of the Year and the Dutch Silver Pen Award. In 1966 he won the Kate Greenaway medal for his illustration work on a book of nursery rhymes, The Mother Goose Treasury. "Drawings from fans – especially children’s drawings – inspired by his books were treasured by Raymond and pinned up on the wall of his studio. “He lived a rich and full life, and said he felt lucky to have had both his wife Jean, and his partner of over 40 years Liz in his life."

Francesa Dow, managing director at Penguin Random House Children's said “I am very proud that Puffin has been the home of Raymond's children's books for so ...

And thank you for the memories.” Deputy leader of the Labour Party, Angela Rayner also paid tribute to Briggs, saying: “Raymond Briggs brought so much magic and joy to so many. “He shared his love of nature with Liz on South Downs walks and on family holidays to Scotland and Wales. He also shared his sense of fun and craziness with his family, and his family of artist friends.”

The Snowman author 'tried to avoid children' and described himself as a 'creative sociopath'

can appear self-absorbed, impulsive, impatient and intolerant”. After reading the definition aloud to the interviewer, he added: “Brilliant. That’s me to a tee.” However, he explained, he spotted the ruse a mile off. “They’re just middle-aged anoraks out for something to flog – ghastly, stupid individuals,” he said. Despite being famous for his books for children, Briggs said he was not a fan of kids. Briggs was often described as a “curmudgeon” but those closest to him have suggested this was partly an act. I try to avoid them whenever possible.”

Whether he was creating his own picture books (23 of them) or illustrating for others, Briggs breathed creative life into British children's publishing. Laconic ...

Also featuring the young Raymond first as a baby and later as a defiantly long-haired art student, it touched briefly on his own marriage and his move to Sussex. Briggs blamed the constant domestic demands on his time for this, but there may also have been a reluctance to part with what was always going to be his final major work. In 2012, the illustrator became the first person to be inducted into the British Comic Awards hall of fame. His leisure time was spent in the house of Liz Benjamin, his partner for over 40 years until her death in 2015. The Tin-Pot Foreign General and the Old Iron Woman (1984) was a lacerating attack on what he saw as the folly and bogus rhetoric occasioned by the Falklands War. Before that, When the Wind Blows (1982) was an equally angry reaction to current government advice on how best to survive a nuclear attack. As a draughtsman in the Royal Corps of Signals for his military service at Catterick Camp, Yorkshire, he was mostly required to draw electrical and radio circuits. As he flies over the Sussex countryside in his sleigh at night Briggs’s own cottage at the foot of the Downs is pictured below. But he made his name with The Mother Goose Treasury (1966), a compendium of 408 nursery rhymes with 897 illustrations, some in line and others glowing with rich colour. Her feelings about nature and experiences of life were very intense.” A devoted carer, he continued to dedicate his books to her for years afterwards. Spawning other associated titles involving different technologies from pop-up to playbooks, The Snowman sold millions of copies and would have made Briggs an even greater fortune had he not previously signed away his merchandising rights. Born in Wimbledon Park, London, in 1934, Briggs was the only son of a milkman and a former lady’s maid. Laconic, loyal and hard-working, his characteristic gallows humour consistently entertained both in print and in the company of friends.

The children's author used comic-strip-like panels to explore the joys and struggles of workaday British life. With irreverent wit, he also interrogated ...

In “Father Christmas,” the only person the title character interacts with is a milkman. He did not like to leave England and lived in a slightly eccentric house in East Sussex, where he collected jigsaw puzzles of the Queen Mother. The living room ceiling was papered with maps. After his wife’s death, he spent four decades in a relationship with Liz Benjamin, who died of Parkinson’s disease in 2015. Growing up in a house without many books, he gravitated instead to the storytelling found in newspaper cartoons. During World War II, he was briefly sent to live with his aunts in the countryside. Mr. Briggs admired the Northern Renaissance’s emphasis on daily life — his studio wall included “Children’s Games,” by the Flemish master Bruegel — but he was not interested in painting with oil. His complaint “I hate winter!” was delivered on the toilet. In “The Snowman” — which, unlike Mr. Briggs’s other books, has no words — rounded frames house the emotional arc of a boy’s winter adventure. A film adaptation of “The Snowman,” which was released in 1982 and features the haunting song “Walking in the Air” in its symphonic score, was nominated for the Academy Award for best animated short film. “I don’t think about what children want,” Mr. Briggs told the BBC in 2017. Mr. Briggs often depicted domesticity and the routines of the working class. “When the Wind Blows” (1982), an argument for nuclear disarmament, shows a retired English couple blithely following the government’s precautions before they are killed in a Soviet attack.

When I met The Snowman writer and illustrator, who died this week aged 88, he was a world away from his grumpy public persona. By Etan Smallman.

His logical view of the world created a Father Christmas (“Blooming Christmas here again!”) who hated the festival not because of his gloominess, but because he was old, fat and exhausted. Briggs was well aware of the impact his words and images had had on millions of childhoods and was deeply touched by the fact. It was filled to the rafters with his merchandise, from a musical Snowman toy he was thrilled to demonstrate, to men’s accessories (“There are blokes in Japan with my signature running up their legs because they put my signature on socks,” he told me, laughing.) Every cuppa was served in Briggs-branded mugs. Briggs, a two-time winner of the prestigious Kate Greenaway Medal, had been so impressed with the sketch, he had it pinned up in his studio, near the desk at which he had produced every one of his classics. But, as was typical of the man, as he looked across 26 miles of the Sussex Weald over to Ashdown Forest, he added: “It’s lovely, but you get a bit fed up of replying. But I only had to wait until we had reached the top of the stairs before he declared: “Oh, actually, that’s rather good!”

Raymond Briggs, the illustrator best known for creating the popular children's picture book The Snowman, passed away on 9 August.

The author and illustrator Raymond Briggs, who died on Tuesday at 88, leaves behind one of the most harrowing works of fiction ever put to the screen.

Jim Bloggs (with the voice of a warm, scratchy jumper, courtesy of Oscar-winner John Mills) keeps abreast of burgeoning tensions with the “Ruskis” by way of the papers, which he reads on trips to the local town. The landscape is rendered a scorched wasteland, the queasy smell of burning flesh carried by the wind. Briggs doesn't imagine humanity emerging from the rubble of devastation to rebuild a better world.

His most notable first works were written as comics – Father Christmas (1973); Father Christmas Goes on Holiday (1975); and Fungus the Bogeyman (1977). He went ...

At the 1999 British Book Awards, it won the Best Illustrated Book of the Year, and then it was made into a feature-length animated film in 2016. Over the second, there falls a shadow: a beloved genius of storytelling and illustration, his hand not quite on its handle, but very close.” Despite the melancholy content, it maintains some levity (are you detecting a theme here?) and provides great insight into the mind of the late artist. They become friends, play together, make a feast, go flying and watch the sunrise, but of course, the snowman has melted by the morning. The Bogeyman is a working-class gent whose job is to scare humans. He kept his curiosity and sense of wonder right up to the last.”

Prominent literary figures and famous faces have paid tribute to Briggs and shared how his work impacted their lives.

“Raymond had an illustrious career and won the BookTrust Lifetime Achievement Award in 2017. She tweeted: “When this was first published and read it I felt understood. Grumpy and difficult, he was nonetheless a genius. The Royal Society of Literature, of which Briggs was a fellow from 1993, said it was “saddened” to hear about his death, and sent condolences to his family. The University of Brighton reflected on its “long standing connection” to the author, who was a native to the city and was an illustration tutor in the School of Art in the 1960s. Sharing images of the author and his books The Snowman and Father Christmas, he added: “His magical work is timeless.”

Author Raymond Briggs, who was responsible for festive favourite The Snowman, hated the cold and despised Christmas. He also described himself as ...

And on a visit to the allotment in 1944, he and his father had to sprint for shelter as a V1 ‘doodlebug’ rocket fell. He liked to tell the story of sitting beside his mother’s hospital bed at the end of visiting hour. All his life, he could not forgive himself for the times he let his parents down. But he was also in awe of his parents’ bravery during the Blitz. A bomb landed on their street, blowing the front door down. Worse, once he became a student at art college (‘There’s no money in that, son,’ warned Ernest), he grew his hair long and refused all his mother’s pleas to comb it. Indeed, Raymond always dated the start of his life not from his birth in 1934 in Wimbledon but to the moment his father first set eyes on his mother. He illustrated his first collection of nursery rhymes, The Mother Goose Trilogy in 1966 which earned him the Kate Greenaway medal He liked to joke that his childhood streets were so tough, the police wouldn’t patrol there. Next morning, she was waiting for him to ride past, and she flapped the duster again. Death, decay and grief were mainstays of his stories It was as if Roald Dahl decided to write Charlie And The Chainsaw Massacre. That book with its nursery-rhyme title came in 1982, after the success of The Snowman.