Booklist

Author of the Month: Raymond Briggs

Selected by the Bookshop


Our Author of the Month for November is the illustrator Raymond Briggs, who died earlier this year at the age of 88.

Perhaps best known for his wordless The Snowman, Briggs created in his long career many classics, both for children and adults. Many of his books contain sly autobiographical references and self-portraits, none more explicitly than his final work Time for Lights Out, which deals movingly with the subjects of ageing and mortality. Much of his work, as in When the Wind Blows and his Falklands War satire The Tin-pot Foreign General and the Old Iron Woman (sadly out of print), is marked by a solid social conscience and hatred for and intolerance of injustice.

Browse some of his work on our booklist here, and come and meet his books in person on our dedicated Briggs table at Bury Place.

From the publisher:
In his customary pose as the grumpiest of grumpy old men, Raymond Briggs contemplates old age and death... and doesn't like them much. Illustrated with Briggs's inimitable pencil drawings, Time for Lights Out is a collection of short…

From the publisher:
Spend Christmas with everyone's favourite Snowman! This special edition comes with an introduction by Raymond Briggs.One winter's night, a snowman comes to life and an unforgettable adventure begins.Raymond Briggs' classic is a true piece…

From the publisher:
It's time for a bloomin' holiday in this hilarious sequel to the beloved festive classic, Father Christmas.In this brilliant funny sequel from Raymond Briggs, author of The Snowman, a still rather grumpy Father Christmas…

From the publisher:
A marvellous, life-enhancing book for all ages, now a major animated film starring Jim Broadbent, Brenda Blethyn and Luke TreadawayUtterly original, deeply moving and very funny, Ethel & Ernest tells the story of Raymond Briggs'…

From the publisher:
Life in Bogeydom is full of snot, smells, slime, scum and other unspeakable things, and Bogeymen live under the ground revelling in allthe nastiness imaginable. Briggs has created a whole new world in this sophisticated cartoon-strip…

From the publisher:
Raymond Briggs' world-famous graphic account of one ordinary couple's attempt to stand firm in the face of nuclear annihilation remains as powerful today as it was when it was first published in 1982.Following Jim and Hilda Blogg in the…

From the publisher:
The hilarious and heartwarming tale of a magical friendship between a girl and a polar bear, from beloved author of The Snowman, Raymond Briggs.One night a great big, white polar bear comes to stay with Tilly. He has black hooked…

From the publisher:
Early one morning, Jim woke up and saw a massive plant growing outside his window . . .In this re-telling of the classic children's story by author of The Snowman Raymond Briggs, a little boy called Jim finds a beanstalk outside…

From the publisher:
Join curious Ug on his quest for a pair of soft trousers in this funny and touching stone-age story from creator of The Snowman, Raymond Briggs.Ug and his parents live in the Stone Age. And that means stone blankets, stone cold food, an…

From the publisher:
Raymond Briggs, creator of The Snowman - inspiration for The Snowman and The Snowdog - introduces us to a rather grumpy Father Christmas.In this hilariously irreverent Christmas book, Father Christmas has awoken from a dream of summer sun…

From the publisher:
From Raymond Briggs, author of The Snowman and inspiration for The Snowman and Snowdog, comes this collection of bloomin' brilliant Christmas jokes. The book also features some of Father Christmas' musings on what it's…

From the publisher:
'Briggs’ pencil has drawn everything about being human – the comic, the tragic, passion, tenderness, fear, anger, joy, bogeys … slime' Posy SimmondsRaymond Briggs has changed the face of children’s picture…

Latest booklists