The author and illustrator of the cherished children’s classic The Snowman, Raymond Briggs, died away today at the age of 88. His family today paid homage to a writer and artist “loved by millions.”
Briggs had a long and prosperous career, but he is best known as the creator of the wildly popular children’s book from 1978 that continues to be a mainstay of festival season.
Since then, more than 5.5 million copies of the wordless picture book have been sold worldwide. Every Christmas, a television adaptation of the book is created.
His last weeks were spent in the Royal Sussex County Hospital, according to relatives, who lauded the “kind and considerate care” of the personnel there.
Millions of copies of the best-selling author’s well-known works, such as When the Wind Blows, Fungus the Bogeyman, Father Christmas, and Ethel & Ernest, have been sold over the last fifty years.
In addition to receiving various honours over his distinguished career, he also won two British Book Awards, the Kurt Maschler Award, and the Kate Greenaway Medal thrice.
His family paid homage to the adored author whose novels “affected millions of people across the globe” in a statement issued today.
He led a long and fulfilling life, and according to the statement, he felt fortunate to have had both his wife Jean and his companion of more than 40 years, Liz, in his life.
On treks through the South Downs and on trips to Scotland and Wales with the family, he showed Liz his love of nature.
At get-togethers, costume parties, and summer picnics in the garden, he also shared his sense of humour and crazy with his family and his extended family of artist friends.
He loves playing practical jokes on others and having them played on him.
All of us who were close to him were aware of his irreverent humour, which could be cutting when applied to people in positions of authority.
In Wimbledon, England, in 1934, Briggs was born to a milkman father named Ernest and a housewife named Ethel.
He was evacuated to the Dorset countryside during World War II when he was five years old, where his parents often visited him.
After returning to south west London, he attended Rutlish School, where he pursued cartooning over his father’s objections.
Briggs studied painting at Wimbledon School of Art from 1949 to 1953 and typography at Central School of Art, against Ernest’s suggestion that it would be a fruitless endeavour.
Between 1953 to 1955, he was a conscript for the National Service in the Royal Corps of Signals in Catterick, where he was trained as a draughtsman.
He went back to the Slade School of Fine Art at UCL and finished his studies there in 1957.
Before settling down as a career as a professional artist and beginning work in the advertising industry in the 1960s, Briggs briefly attempted a painting career.
He won the Kate Greenaway Medal in 1996 for his illustrations of The Mother Goose Trilogy, his first collection of nursery rhymes.
Father Christmas (1973), Fungus the Bogeyman (1977), and The Snowman are examples of later classics (1978).
Time for Lights Out, his last book, was released in 2019 when he was 85 years old.
In it, the seasoned author deals with ageing and mortality while leaving behind a beguiling jumble of jokes, sketches, and old complaints.
The author endured several hardships throughout his life despite his preference for penning and illuminating great children’s stories.
In 1971, Mr. Briggs’ mother passed away from leukaemia, and nine months later, his milkman father passed away from stomach cancer.
Then, on Christmas Eve 1972, Jean Taprell Clark, a painter who had suffered from schizophrenia, received the devastating news that she had leukaemia. Years later, she passed away.
And neither fame nor wealth could ever make up for the loss of his sweetheart of 42 years, Liz, who passed away in 2015 after a struggle with Parkinson’s.
As soon as word of the renowned children’s author’s dying spread, tributes flooded in.
Upon learning that Mr. Briggs had passed away at the age of 88, TV gardener Monty Don congratulated the author and artist for “enriching so many of our lives.”
Thank you Raymond Briggs for a life’s work that is so masterfully highlighting the deep seam of very English pessimism, the man tweeted. You really improved a lot of our lives.
According to the deputy Labour leader, Raymond Briggs “gave so much charm and delight to so many.” Peace be with you. And I appreciate the memories.
Briggs had always taken a cool approach to Christmas, much like the desolate winter settings that he incorporated into his best-selling book The Snowman.
Briggs, whose endearing story is a staple of the holiday season for countless families every year, admitted he actually detested the festivities.
Although I agree with the idea of a day of eating and gifting, he previously said, “I’m not a fan of Christmas.”
But the worry about how many people are arriving begins in October.
Do they have children with them? When will they leave? 2012 saw him telling the Daily Mail.
At Penguin Random House, where Raymond Briggs was published, Francesca Dow, managing director of children’s, said: “I am extremely delighted that Puffin has been the home of Raymond’s children’s books for so many years.
With a remarkable economy of words and graphics, Raymond’s books connect to both adults and children while addressing some of the most basic concerns about what it means to be human.
The Snowman is undoubtedly Raymond’s most well-known work.
He produced a bold and stunning novelty, a wordless picture book for kids, a storyboard of stills that became an immediate classic in its own right, as well as the adored animation, maybe needing more flexibility than the conventional 32-page picture book format permitted.
Raymond was an incredibly astute and humorous storyteller who was honest about how life is rather than how adults would desire to convey it to youngsters, she said. All of his novels exhibit compassion, sincerity, and charity.
As for Raymond in real life, he was a kind, unselfish person who made working with him as well as visiting his Sussex cottage and experiencing his teasing brilliance at home a delight.
He was a hoot! He often made us chuckle. He will be missed. We all enjoyed working with him, and we shall all miss him.
Briggs, according to Ms. Dow, was “unique” and “influenced generations of authors, illustrators, and graphic novelists.”
He leaves a tremendous legacy and a significant void, she continued.