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Biography of Raymond Briggs

Raymond Briggs is an English illustrator, animator, graphic novelist, and writer, whose works are immensely popular among both adults and children. His most famous work, both in the UK and worldwide, is the story of The Snowman, a children's book without words that was later adapted into an animated film. The book, film, and musical about The Snowman have become a part of British national culture and are essential to every Christmas celebration since 1978.

Raymond Briggs was born on January 18, 1934, in Wimbledon, London, England. He attended the Wimbledon School of Art from 1949 to 1953, where he studied painting. Despite his father's attempts to dissuade him from pursuing art as a career, Raymond enrolled in the Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design and later studied at the Slade School of Fine Art at University College London, graduating in 1957.

After serving in the Royal Army for two years, Briggs became a professional illustrator and focused on children's literature. In 1958, he illustrated "Peter and the Piskies: Cornish Folk and Fairy Tales," an anthology of magical stories published by Oxford University Press. In 1966, he received the Kate Greenaway Medal for his illustrations in the Hamilton edition of "Mother Goose Treasury," a collection of 408 traditional tales and rhymes.

Briggs wrote and illustrated three of his earliest well-known works, "Father Christmas" and its sequel "Father Christmas Goes on Holiday," as well as the darker graphic novel "Fungus the Bogeyman." These were published by Hamish Hamilton. They were followed by "The Snowman," which was adapted into a beloved annual Christmas television special in 1982, and "Gentleman Jim," a novel in the same format but intended for an older audience.

Briggs's book, "When the Wind Blows," received significant acclaim. The story depicts naive and optimistic characters facing the horrors of nuclear war. He also wrote "The Tin-Pot Foreign General and the Old Iron Woman," inspired by the events of the Falklands War. However, Briggs continued to work on children's series, including "Unlucky Wally" and "The Bear."

In 1993, Briggs won the British Book Award for Best Children's Writer of the Year. His graphic novel, "Ethel and Ernest," which portrays his parents' 41-year marriage, earned him another award for Best Illustrated Book in 1999. Sadly, his wife, Jean Taprell Clark, also an artist, passed away from leukemia in 1973, and they did not have any children.

Since 2010, Raymond Briggs has lived in a small house in Westmeston, Sussex, continuing to write and illustrate books. Despite his fame and recognition, he lives a modest life and dresses in second-hand clothing. His books sell in large quantities, but Briggs claims to be uninterested in money. For the past 30 years, his companion has been a teacher named Liz, although he has never revealed her full name to protect his privacy. They live separately mainly because Briggs's home and studio are filled with creative chaos.

Briggs initially resisted creating a sequel to his book "The Snowman" and gave his permission only when he was assured that the sequel would not be vulgar or "Americanized." The long-awaited continuation, titled "The Snowman and the Snowdog," premiered on Channel 4 on Christmas Eve at 8 p.m.