Raymond Briggs

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For the British general, see Raymond Briggs (British Army officer).
Raymond Briggs
Born Raymond Redvers Briggs
18 January 1934 (1934-01-18) (age 78)
Wimbledon, London
Nationality British
Area(s) Artist, writer, cartoonist, graphic novelist
Notable works Father Christmas
Fungus the Bogeyman
The Snowman
When the Wind Blows
Jim and the Beanstalk
Awards Boston Globe-Horn Book Award (1979)
British Book Awards Children's Book of the Year (1992)[1]

Raymond Redvers Briggs (born 18 January 1934) is an English illustrator, cartoonist, graphic novelist and author, who has achieved critical and popular success among adults and children. He is best known for his story The Snowman, which is shown every Christmas on British television in cartoon form and on the stage as a musical.[2]

Contents

[edit] Biography

Raymond Briggs was born in Wimbledon, London, England, to parents Ethel and Ernest Briggs, a lady's maid and a milkman. He attended Rutlish School for Boys (then a grammar school), pursued cartooning from an early age and, despite his father's attempts to discourage him from this unprofitable pursuit, attended the Wimbledon School of Art from 1949 to 1953 to study painting, and Central School of Art to study typography.[3]

From 1953 to 1955 he was a conscript in the Royal Corps of Signals at Catterick where he was made a draughtsman.[4] After these two years of National Service, he returned to the study of painting at Slade School of Fine Art at University College, London, graduating in 1957.

After briefly pursuing painting, he became a professional illustrator, and soon began working in children's books. In 1961 he began teaching illustration part-time at Brighton School of Art, which he continued until 1986.[5][6]

In 1958, he illustrated Peter and the Piskies: Cornish Folk and Fairy Tales, a fairy tale anthology by Ruth Manning-Sanders that was published by Oxford University Press.

His first three major works, Father Christmas (1973), Father Christmas Goes on Holiday (1975) (both featuring a curmudgeonly Father Christmas who complains incessantly about the "blooming snow"), and Fungus the Bogeyman (1977), were in the form of comics rather than the typical children's-book format of separate text and illustrations. The Snowman (1978) was entirely wordless, and illustrated with only pencil crayons.[7] Briggs said that it was partly inspired by his previous book, "For two years I worked on Fungus, buried amongst muck, slime and words, so... I wanted to do something which was clean, pleasant, fresh and wordless and quick."[8] The Snowman became Briggs' best-known work when in 1982 it was made into an Oscar nominated animated cartoon, that has been shown every year since on British television.

Briggs continued to work in a similar format, but with more adult content, in Gentleman Jim (1980), a sombre look at the working class trials of Jim and Hilda Bloggs, closely based on his parents. When the Wind Blows (1982) confronted the trusting, optimistic Bloggs couple with the horror of nuclear war, and was praised in the British House of Commons for its timeliness and originality. The topic was inspired after Briggs watched a Panorama documentary on nuclear contingency planning,[6] and the dense format of the page was inspired by a Swiss publisher's miniature version of Father Christmas.[9] This book was turned into a two-handed radio play with Peter Sallis in the male lead role, and subsequently an animated film, featuring John Mills and Peggy Ashcroft.[10] The Tin-Pot Foreign General and the Old Iron Woman (1984) was a scathing denunciation of the Falklands War. However, Briggs continued to produce humour for children, in works such as the Unlucky Wally series and The Bear.

In 1993 Briggs was recognized as The Children's Author of the Year by the British Book Awards. His graphic novel Ethel and Ernest, which portrayed his parents' 41-year marriage, won Best Illustrated Book in the 1999 British Book Awards.

His wife Jean, who suffered from schizophrenia, died from leukaemia in 1973, only two years after his parents. They did not have any children.

As of 2008 he lives in a small house in Westmeston in Sussex;[11] because of the clutter he keeps a separate home from his partner, Liz, her children and grandchildren. He continues to work on writing and illustrating books.[12]

[edit] Selected bibliography

[edit] Adaptations

(1982) Sony Video Software: 50QS 4011(Betamax)/50ZS 4011(VHS)
(2006) DVD NR, UPC 043396164369, Director Diane Jackson, approx. 29 minutes
The Snowman (1993) 29 min; and
Father Christmas (1997) 25 min (including material from Father Christmas Goes on Holiday)

[edit] Awards

Briggs has won numerous awards during his career, including:[1][8]

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ a b "British Council Contemporary writers, Raymond Briggs". http://www.contemporarywriters.com/authors/?p=authC2D9C28A1da9f1EA3FRqW3424C56. 
  2. ^ Wroe, Nicholas (18 December 2004). "Bloomin' Christmas". The Guardian (London). http://books.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,12084,1375227,00.html. Retrieved 22 May 2010. 
  3. ^ Raymond Briggs Microsoft Encarta Online Encyclopedia 2009.
  4. ^ The CILIP Carnegie & Kate Greenaway Living Archive - Raymond Briggs
  5. ^ Briggs, Raymond - MSN Encarta
  6. ^ a b read yourself RAW - Profile: Raymond Briggs
  7. ^ Guardian book club: The Snowman and Father Christmas, by Raymond Briggs The Guardian. 20 December 2008
  8. ^ a b Raymond Briggs - Puffin Books
  9. ^ Raymond Briggs: Why I'd like to be a proper author | Books | The Guardian
  10. ^ When the Wind Blows at the Internet Movie Database
  11. ^ http://www.theargus.co.uk/news/8757316.Snowman_author_says___I_hate_Christmas_/
  12. ^ The Observer Big kid, 'old git' and still in the rudest of health. The Observer. 10 August 2008.

[edit] Further reading

[edit] External links

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