Every winter approaches Christmas, in the rainy, cold and dark winter day in England, this country house with green wooden doors located on the outskirts of East Sussex, England, the phone rings ring more frequently than usual, and visitors come in.
Echoes the picture books "Snowman" and "Santa Claus" placed on the seasonal theme bookshelf in bookstores and libraries; in front of TV or in the cinema, children and parents look forward to watching movies of the same name; in many British cities such as London's West End, Manchester , Edinburgh , and other British cities, the enduring children's musical "Snowman" toured again; dolls, pillows, blankets, toys, tableware, mugs, and even toilet paper printed with snowman patterns, merchants spare no effort to innovate and help the consumption enthusiasm of the Christmas season.
Raymond BriggsGreen wooden doors of country cottage. The picture comes from the documentary "Raymond Briggs: Snowmen, Bogeymen Milkmen" directed by Louise Lockwood. The documentary was aired on BBC (BBC).
"My only Christmas plan is to wait for it to pass faster." Not every visitor knows how the owner is disliked to be disturbed when he is concentrating on creating, or carefully notices the words "NO BELL" posted on the note under the old doorbell. Sometimes careless people ignore the notes posted by the owner on the right side of the door frame, confuse several adjacent green cottages with similar place names, and become uninvited guests who ring the wrong doorbell.
Unfortunately, the owner of this cottage, famous British writer and illustrator Raymond Briggs (also translated as Raymond Briggs), will no longer be troubled by the uninvited Christmas guests this Christmas this year. On the second day after Briggs' death, BBC Two (BBC II) replayed the animated film "Hidden Family in London " which tells his parents' marriage for more than 40 years, paying tribute to the illustrator.
Raymond Briggs Work Scene. The picture comes from the documentary Raymond Briggs.
This man has passed away, and his works have existed. Briggs' personal creation retrospective exhibition is currently on tour in major art venues in the UK. The exhibition was first exhibited at the Winchester Exploration Center in May 2021, covering more than 100 original works by Briggs. Many of the paintings and private archives are disclosed for the first time, aiming to show the changes and advancement of his painting style, breakthroughs and innovations in artistic expression techniques, and the correlation between different works.
collaborative curator Katie Mike Colon believes that his creations are "humorous, keen, and even sometimes subversive." "He used powerful visual narrative techniques to portray a series of universal themes - family and affection, possession and death, politics and class." Another collaborative curator Nicolete Jones saw many familiar figures of ordinary people in the characters written by Briggs. "Santa Claus is as busy as a working person, full of complaints. The checkered creatures remind people of those dispensable and despised figures. The snowman flying in the air and his parents in the picture books are ordinary people everywhere in every era."
Briggs expects to be a "good actor" who can use his brush to synaesthesize the roles between paper. "If (my) character is walking proudly on the road, I need to imagine how he feels, observe him and become him. I hope my illustrations can achieve these two things at the same time."
"Snowman" English version cover, which has been introduced and published by Xinyi.
Although "Snowman" is one of the works that have been translated into the most popular languages and the largest circulation in his creation, it is far from enough to summarize the breadth and depth of his creation.If we want to summarize and review Briggs' breakthrough contribution to picture books, especially the field of image novels, we must trace back to his nearly 70 years of illustration creation experience, carefully savor how he reproduces the characters in fairy tales and nursery rhymes, and how he can image more commonplace and unrespected little people, especially those who rarely go out of the English world for various reasons and are even known only to British readers: Gentleman Jim Hilda [also known as Mr. and Mrs. Bloggs], Ethel Ernest, etc....
Briggs once said, "No matter what you create, there will always be shadows of your own life and your surroundings in the characters you create." His works hide his family images. He doesn't like socializing and is not good at hiding it. In his works and interviews, he left a real, three-dimensional and polygonal him for this world. If we want to analyze how an illustrator grows and achieves in creation, we need to start by deconstructing his life experience and revisiting his daily life.
This issue’s “People Who Write Children’s Books” column, we push a long article to commemorate the children’s book master Raymond Briggs.
1983's Raymond Briggs. (Photo source: Wikipedia)
1
Childhood in troubled times, but the family harbor is always in
1934, Raymond Briggs was born in an ordinary working family in Surrey, England (now owned by London) Wimbleton Park. His parents lived in the same house all their lives, and Briggs also recorded and commemorated his childhood home in a graphic form. In recent years' interviews and recollections, he bluntly expressed his obsession with family affection, especially his parents. "(One of my heirlooms) is the bread-cutting knife and breadboard that my parents have always used. I have used them throughout my childhood."
This old man, who was over 80 years old, looks like a child who has never grown up in his memories. He used his parents' lives as a story and published the graphic novel "Ethel Ernest" in 1998. The story was then brought to the big screen in the form of a hand-drawn animated film, which made many British readers feel strongly resonate with the experiences of their families or their contemporaries.
hand-drawn animated movie "Family in London" (2016).
For picture book readers around the world, they can also find every corner of his childhood home in his early creations. For example, the place where Santa Claus washes and shaves is in his childhood bathroom. The side of Santa’s sink where he does things is the scene of his father doing housework in his childhood memory. The scene of the boy and the snowman taking off, taken from the memories-filled front yard that his father often takes him to play with.
"The house that has the most influence on me was my childhood home in London. The home near Wimbledon Park is a typical British row house from the 1910s. A row of identical or mirrored houses rise along the street, share side walls, and internal institutions are almost exactly the same. The narrow walkways connect the living room, dining room, kitchen, and utility room for housework such as laundry. The second floor has three bedrooms and a bathroom. My bedroom is on the back, overlooking the garden. Usually, working-class families like us live in such a simple and rough-designed house. Our kitchen windows are opposite the next door. Sometimes the clock in the house is broken. Just look at the clock of the neighbor White's house and you can tell the time."
Father Ethel and his milk delivery truck. The picture comes from the documentary Raymond Briggs.
Raymond Briggs's father is a milkman and works all year round. My mother was a maid before marriage, and after marriage, she dealt with the inside and outside of the house, and her whole life was around her son and husband. My mother was 39 years old when she gave birth to him, and she worked extremely hard due to her advanced pregnancy. Taking into account physical conditions and doctor's advice, parents gave up on the idea of having another one. Little Raymond became the only one in the family, and was taken care of by a pair of parents who loved him wholeheartedly.
The joy that his birth brought to this small family, and this family's life that was not rich but still enjoyable, was soon shrouded in fear that the war in World War II is about to sweep London. People in the streets of London were panic, and air defense alarms were becoming more and more frequent. The news came from the broadcast that millions of children were retreating to the countryside. The capable and optimistic father used his spare time to collect building materials and built a simple air-raid shelter in the backyard. My mother, who is relatively gentle by nature, is worried all day long. The couple finally decided to send five-year-old Raymond onto the train and let him join his relatives living in the Dorset countryside to avoid the fire. The first trip in childhood was a lonely journey full of unknowns in troubled times.
Raymond sent his parents the first letter of his life, drawing Aunt Betty, Aunt Fuller and a cow who took good care of him. The tender but neat handwriting briefly describes the carefreeness that life in the countryside should have. "I slept on the camping bed. The milk I drink every morning is not poured out of the milk bottle, but is squeezed out now." The mother felt sorry for her son not to sleep on the bed with a mattress, and the father, who is a milkman, is obviously more interested in the milk he squeezed out now.
Little Raymond remembers that when he met his parents, he was thrilling on the tall haystacks pulled by the carriage; he also remembers seeing London after the baptism of artillery fire, the city was full of devastated and in ruins. Like other Londoners, he remembered many moments in the lives of ordinary people in that era. His father, who was temporarily unemployed due to the war, was recruited to Thames Wharf to clean up the remains of the bones. After working for fourteen hours, he was exhausted and fell in his mother's arms and cried bitterly. Walking out of the bombardment of London, we finally ushered in another Christmas with lights and decorations. The pear tree seeds given by Aunt Fuller were planted by Little Raymond with full expectation. In Wimbledon Park, where the past is revived, each family moved out tables and chairs to hang out along the street to celebrate the victory of the war and the reunion of long separation. There are always people who suffer the pain of losing their son in laughter and sadness, speechless. ——These are all engraved in Raymond's childhood memories.
Like parents of contemporary or similar classes, they look forward to their sons' education to achieve the class leap they have never achieved. When Raymond Jr. became the only child in the neighborhood to be admitted to the grammar school , which is famous for its good teaching quality, they firmly believed that he had "half a foot into the middle class circle" and began to look forward to his son's future career. From childhood to teenager, although Raymond was occasionally naughty, his sensible and well-behaved never disappointed his parents. Briggs, who gradually grew up to be a young man, is more determined to get closer to his dream and become a cartoon painter. In 1949, 15-year-old Briggs decided to leave the grammar school and attend the Wimbledon School of Art. This decision was beyond the expectations of his parents, especially his mother was very anxious. Did his son ruin his path to becoming an office employee?
hand-drawn animated movie "Family in London" (2016).
In 1952, Briggs applied to study at the Central Academy of Art and Design (now affiliated to Central St. Martins College, London) and studied a one-year course in typesetting and text design. After graduating in 1953, he enlisted in the army. Between Egypt, Germany and Catterick, he chose the only option to not go abroad - a rural residence in North Yorkshire, England.
He was well cared for by his parents since childhood, and he seemed to have never fallen in love with long journeys in his life. "I don't like traveling very much. North Yorkshire is far enough for me, and is already 'foreign'." Like some illustrators of his contemporaries (later famous), he was responsible for public opinion propaganda in the army during his two years in the military. It is a seemingly relevant but rather forced thing to apply the painting skills learned in the classroom to the communication and communication work with a strong purpose. When one of his promotional oil paintings was invited to participate in the Joint Exhibition of Young Artists, he illusioned that "I could probably become a famous oil painter." He therefore began his course at Slade School of Fine Art, University College London.
Two years later, in 1957, he "left without anything."At that time, the mainstream consensus in the industry on painting and art was that "those who can use sticky oil paint to create are real artists." Art represented by oil paintings means classics and elegance, and commercial art is regarded as relatively vulgar and cheap; illustration creation, compared with other market-oriented commercial art forms such as advertising, is the most despised. [It is worth mentioning here that in recent years, the International Children's Books Alliance American Sub-Forum (USBBY) has discussed it with the title of "illustration and art". Lisbeth Zwerger, François Place, Roger Mello and many other international Andersen Illustration Award winners and nominees share their indifference in their studies and careers. Their hard experience of clearing the name of "illustration" is surprisingly similar. ]
Briggs still remembers that when he first entered school at the age of 16, the principal who was obsessed with Renaissance art heard that he dreamed of becoming a cartoon painter and asked him furiously: "Boy, do you just want to do this when you come to study art?" He did not reject being surrounded by Renaissance art - Michelangelo, Piero de la Francesca , or other painters - giving him a lot of inspiration and nutrients for his future creation. However, years of art studies have made him feel that he lacks talent in oil painting techniques and media texture, and it is difficult to achieve anything in the field of art and art. He is still looking forward to making a living by illustration creation.
2
Imaging concrete, reminiscence image, speculative picture book
Briggs went to Oxford University Press to apply for a job. Editor Mabel George asked him: "Do you want to draw illustrations for fairy tales, such as painting fairies, giants, and speaking animals...?" Many years later he recalled, "I think this is a very interesting suggestion. I tried it and found that it was very interesting to create pictures for fantasy stories." In 1958, his first job was to create illustrations for Ruth Manning-Sanders' "Peter and Pisky: Cornwall Folk Tales and Fairy Tales Collection". He saw that he had the ability to visualize imagination and image memories, and his teenage dream was no longer out of reach.
In 1961, Briggs began teaching part-time classes at the Brighton School of Art. His parents, who are still worried that his son could not survive on painting, were a little pleased that he became a "teacher", and his daily salary was even equivalent to his father's weekly salary when he retired. Although the income from multiple jobs such as drawing illustrations, creating picture books and part-time teaching is not rich, it is enough to provide enough food and clothing to shoulder family responsibilities.
In 1963, he married Jean Clark, his girlfriend he met while studying at the Academy of Fine Arts. Because Jane En suffers from schizophrenia, the couple decided to DINK for the rest of their lives. The mother had quite a complaint about the marriage but was unable to stop it. The Briggs moved into a village house in West Sussex, a "dirty" shack in the mother's first impression, and in the years that it was converted into a two-story country cottage by Briggs. He really likes the garden at home. The favorite room is the north-facing studio that looks out to the stretch of South Downs and even 26 miles away in clear weather, the dense Sussex Weald stretches to the Ashdown Forest.
"Midnight Adventure" English version cover.
Briggs met several of his mentors one after another. These editors have included his various innovative attempts and personal styles, telling him that "the first priority of every artist is to be himself." "Some stories are too bad, so I might as well write them myself." Briggs handed over the manuscript with a try-through mentality, and the editor agreed to publish without hesitation, which was unexpected. In 1961, at the age of 27, he published his first original picture book, Midnight Adventure. The story is based on his rebellious experience in his youth. He climbed over the wall and entered a golf club and was escorted home by the police.
Before he won the Kate Greenway Award for "The Mother Goose Treasury" (1966), he drew illustrations for 24 works.Commentator Philip Hensher believes that Briggs' creative style at that time was a tribute to the inheritance of tradition and his idol, "the painting style is warm, very moral, a bit mysterious, but very English... He reminds people of Edward Ardizzone and Samuel Palmer". Briggs himself also mentioned his love for Stanley Spencer, a British painter of similar styles during the same period.
"Briggs Goose Mother's Children's Rhyme Golden Dicta" has been introduced and published by Yuefu Culture.
British " Sunday Times " contributor, children's book editor, literary critic Nicolette Jones, see more about Briggs' epoch-making innovation and contribution to illustration creation. In her biography of Briggs published in 2020, she spent a lot of time reviewing the breakthrough and originality of her early creations. Through some works focusing on folk stories, fairy tales and nursery rhymes, Briggs fully practices how to visualize and image memories, apply what he has learned to practice, and does not fear innovation, and begins to gradually form a strong personal style. Repeatable patterns, light and dark texture of colors, combination of painting techniques, spatial layout and composition, perspective selection and presentation... Every subject in the eyes of others should be his experimental field and the carrier for him to express his thinking ability.
He boldly breaks through and pursues the ultimate, without losing his humility. He is not satisfied with drawing architectural details such as paving stones, tracks, wooden fences, bricks and tiles in a single way. Each time it has a different style, color, and quality, but it is in line with the situation. He sometimes put forward some "antimental" printing requirements for the editors, "The colors in this painting should be similar to before, but a little more black will make the grainier feel stronger."
Briggs tried to superimpose thick and dynamic ink painting lines on the Impressionist style oil painting, enriching the texture, light and dark contrast and reading experience of the painting.
He also began to show his interest, thinking and expressiveness in some contrasting concepts such as spatial proportion, conflicts and contradictions, ugliness and sorrows. For example, in the folk story collection "Hohahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha 》 [(Fee Fi Fo Fum, 1964), the title of the book originated from the British quartz. It is famous for its appearance in the classic fairy tale "Jack and the Magic Bean". It sounds like the shouts of a pirate, which can cause fear]. Briggs draws the scene of a fight with a color picture on the right side of the book page, and on the left, he uses black and white sketches to outline the children from the perspective of giants to observe the mini fight scenes, thereby diluting the sense of violence and the transmitted fear of the picture.
Three nursery rhyme stories created by Briggs attracted American children's book editor Alice Torrey. She contacted a British publisher to discuss whether she could publish a complete collection of stories that could be published in multiple English-speaking countries. The 1966 Kate Greenway Award-winning work "The Goose Mama's Children's Rhyme Golden Dicta" was born after one and a half years of preparation and creation.
In today's hundreds of Goose Mother nursery rhyme versions, this version created by Briggs still has a special status because of its originality: most of the children's books of the same era are responsible for the layout of text and illustrations by book designers. In this book with a total of 224 pages and 408 nursery rhymes, Briggs decided the style, texture, size, position and layout of 897 illustrations based on the text content and situation requirements, making the book's style diverse, sometimes extensive, sometimes warm, unconventional, and interesting.
The nursery rhyme "If" in the Chinese version of "Briggs Goose Goose's nursery rhyme Golden Dictation". (Photo source: Yuefu Culture)
For example, on page 211 of the original version, he used a huge comic-style illustration to depict a giant with a beard-blowing stare and anger emerging from his ears, chasing a boy who escaped while secretly having fun. He cleverly combined two irrelevant nursery rhymes through imaginative illustrations. He even tried other illustration techniques. On page 99 of the original version, he used newspaper clippings, hand-painted paper sheets and other collage compositions to reproduce a nursery rhyme about paper and ink "If all the World".
award-winning titled Briggs has brought many publication invitations, including many excellent works, but most of them have not gone out of English-speaking countries. In The Christmas Book (1968), he created illustrations for excerpts from "" and "Paddington Bear". In the other two picture books with racers as the theme, he used sketches of pencils to reflect the sense of speed and technology. Today, these paintings are still out of date and unique. The smooth and round lines, bold and confident composition, and the contrast of light and shadow colors with warm light and shadow have laid the foundation for Briggs' personal creative style.
"Elephant and the Bad Boy" has been introduced and published by Inspiration Culture. "The Elephant and the Bad Baby", published in 1969, is one of the few illustrations in Briggs' creations that have been introduced into the Chinese world. "The elephant asked the bad boy, 'Do you want to go for a ride?' The bad boy answered: 'Yes.'"
author Elfrida Vipont tells a simple and interesting story in repeated sentences and rhyme language: a foodie boy riding a taciturn elephant, crossing the street "bangdong, pounddong, pounddong" all the way, eating and drinking for free, attracting a number of shop owners and stall owners to chase after him. Briggs's cold drink vendors, butcher shop owners, pastry chefs, restaurant hospitality, grocery store owners, candy shop assistants, and fruit stall owners were furious and full of eyes, and they were full of life. This is the first time he has had the opportunity to be an ordinary person with different professional identities in a picture book so densely and imaged in real life. This creation that caused a strong market response was not accidental accumulation.
"Elephant and Bad Boy" real shot.
3
Winter is not limited by Christmas, and the reciprocity in life is in the early stages of studying, marriage and career. Briggs first got involved in society and was also aware of himself. He did not follow the traditional path of class transition as his parents wished. He was getting richer and more powerful, and before he knew it, he was ready to go. In his favorite second-floor studio facing north, works such as "Santa Claus", "Chemacota" and "Snowman" will be born.
The Santa Claus imagined and embodied by Briggs broke the usual convention: a white beard, not young, a little fat, happily sent Christmas gifts to thousands of households. If the traditional image of Santa is more "Christmas" and is a sacred, solemn and powerful religious character, then Briggs's Santa is more down-to-earth, a "dad" with a prototype of life, and even has a bad temper for granted: she loves to eat and drink, like ordinary people, she needs to worry about food, rice, oil and salt, and is often trapped by housework and livelihood.
"I have always liked to discuss those fantasy characters, such as demons or Santa - and imagine them as real... If Santa has to go out to work all night, no matter what the weather is, he should have had enough of that. Who would really like this hard work of rain and rain, others celebrate Christmas, but he has to send parcels to the whole world? Why can't he be a bad-tempered, stubborn old man?"
"Santa Claus", the book has been introduced and published by the Love Tree.
Briggs sees the similarity between Santa and his father's milkman job. He remembered that on Christmas morning in his childhood, he also needed to get up very early to help deliver milk. Even, he lets his father appear in a scene in the book. Two workers who were busy on Christmas meet - on Christmas morning, the milkman greeted Santa Claus, who was also a world-famous man. "Are you still busy, man?" This is a meeting between the working-class Santa Claus and the working-class father.
Briggs never seeks quick success and instant benefits. Most of his works take as short as several months and as long as one or two years. "Santa Claus" is no exception. After a year and a half, the long period of creation is intertwined with indescribable pain of bereavement. The creation began shortly after 1971 when Briggs' parents died one after another, and the manuscript was published in 1973 when his wife died.Like all the hot-selling works that followed, neither his parents nor his wife could share the joy of his future success during his lifetime, which became a regret that accompanied him throughout his life.
Many of the drawings of "Santa Claus" were conceived and drafted in the ward of a hospital in Sussex. My wife, who has been suffering from schizophrenia for a long time, has contracted pneumonia that is difficult to cure. Briggs, who has not yet gotten out of the pain of losing her parents, has to travel between the ward and the studio. He enjoys his efforts to devote himself to his creation and use his beloved work to relieve his depression and depression; he also receives some comfort whenever he shares the latest completed drawings with his wife on the bed.
In 1973, "Santa Claus" was released. Kind friends tried to fill his life with busyness, leaving him with no time to be sad. One of his friends has a house in France and the other settled in Scottish , and they all tacitly asked him to help. The publisher also invited him to participate in overseas activities in Paris, New York and other places. Briggs traveled the most frequently in his life. These trips later provided inspiration for his second Santa picture book, Father Christmas Goes on Holiday (1975), - "Santa Claus can do it,"
"Santa Claus" illustration. (Photo source: Love Tree)
"Santa Claus" won the 1973 Kate Greenway Award. His original breakthrough is that Briggs introduced comic strips and graphic novels into British picture book creation for the first time, blurring the boundaries between the two art forms and justifying the names of both. Through this book, Briggs' picture books have entered the markets of non-English speaking countries such as Japan and South Korea for the first time. (A local reader who loves Japanese comics, regards Briggs as an image novelist in the English-speaking world. When his work toured Japan in 1998, it caused a strong response.)
Nicoleet Jones commented on "Santa Claus", "both funny and sad", "mixed with images of realism and escapism", "and there is no shortage of detailed innovations as always" - for example, he adjusted the humidity and water quality composition of paper to enhance the granulation of watercolor pigments, making the snow in the square more three-dimensional and realistic. Today, can readers born and raised in the digital age, regain the resonance of the world like a child, slow-paced and deep reading through Briggs' detailed outlines? Santa feeds reindeer like a horse. He relies on broadcasts rather than mobile phones to get weather forecasts. The cats and Russell Terrier use their perspective to lead readers through the house and outside the house...
Around 1973, at a banquet held by a publisher, British illustrator couple Helen Oxenbury and John Burningham first met Briggs and began their nearly 50-year friendship. Like him every time he saw in social occasions, Briggs kept checking the time, afraid of missing the last train home. Helen remembers seeing Briggs for the first time, and felt that he was a little cynical, seemed to be rude and humble. There was deep sadness between his words and eyebrows. "It was time for his first wife, Jane En, to leave. I was not sure whether his sadness was born or that he was so lonely because of his relatives' death. That sadness and loneliness seemed to have never left him since then."
" Shortly after (Jane En) I met Liz in a bar near my home. We got along well and walked with us for 40 years. She was a single mother, with two children at the time of eight and six. There were also boarders at their home. Because there is not enough space at home for me to live for a long time. We gradually get used to living in our own homes separately. We have always lived close to each other, which is very convenient to walk around. During this period, I began to create the story of "Chabarium". "
Bogeyman (sometimes also spelled boogeyman or boogerman) is an imaginary monster in European and American folk stories. Sometimes parents use this to scare disobedient children. "If you are disobedient, the monster will come!" Because it comes from legend, the image of this monster is not certain, which gives readers and illustrators a lot of room for imagination.Briggs, under the name of "Fungus the Bogeyman" (1977), tells the dirty life of this kind of filthy monster that he imagines, creating a world that is inverted from human thinking and values.
"Flatville" has been introduced and published by Yuefu Culture.
Surprisingly, the prototype of the creation of Quasteria was his mother Ethel - not because of her appearance, but because of her common temperament. Like his mother, Quasiya, who has a gentle temper, treats people sincerely, and loves his family deeply, is a pacifist. Briggs was not shy about it. In other aspects, C. cerevisia is the opposite of his mother. For example, he is not nitpicking, he is not narrow-minded, he just believes that extreme cleanliness is pathological, and that language and thinking are his true enthusiasm. "Chema" is a chubby, lengthy, detailed, imaginative and experimental story. In most children's picture books of the same era with innocence and warmth as the tone, they are unique.
After two consecutive years of living with the sticky, wet, smelly story protagonist and complex details, Briggs almost instinctively wants to heal himself with a pure, quiet, clean story. When I woke up one day, the light in the house showed a different texture than usual, "It's snowing!"
Inspiration comes from this. In 1978, the picture book "Snowman" was born. It tells the story of a boy and a snowman entering each other's daily lives, becoming friends and saying something else. The snowman was curious about the pots and pans in the house, and even everything in the bathroom, and explored freely. The boy looked down at the snow-covered English countryside and the seaside town from the sky with the snow.
This wordless book (wordless book, or silent book) painted from colored lead uses the layout of image novels, like a storyboard script of a silent movie. The picture of the boy slept soundly at the bedside, Briggs sketched by his partner Liz's son Tom. The plot is simple, slow-paced, and the narrative is smooth like a story, with self-explanatory communication magic. Even though there have been countless versions of the Snowman story in various cultures, the eternal theme of nature and life resonates with readers from all over the world, making this wordless book the book with the largest sales, the most translated versions, and the most international awards among Briggs' works.
cover of "Snowman" in each language.
In 2018, at the 40th anniversary of the publication of "Snowman", nine well-known British illustrators including Shirley Hughes, Helen Oxsonbury, John Burningham, Posy Simmonds, Chris Riddell, etc., paid tribute to Briggs with their own themed paintings.
Almost every one of them has their own creations on the theme of winter or snow. They do not deny the impact of Briggs' "Snowman" on themselves, their families, and especially their children. Shirley Hughes, then 91, said that every winter she still rereads "Snowman" with her grandchildren. Percy Simmonds talked about being attracted to certain inserts and staring at them for a long time. "He showed the rich human nature and the reciprocity of life with extreme softness: whether it is comedy, tragedy, enthusiasm, gentleness, fear, anger, joy, or other... they all end up being warm."
picture book "The Snowman" has always been a story about winter, not Christmas. In 1982, the BBC adapted it into a TV movie of the same name and aired on Channel 4, gaining countless fans. The film was nominated for the 55th Academy Awards for Best Animation Short Film, won the British Academy Television Awards of the year, and became a must-play video for Christmas every year thereafter. Hilary Audus, an animator of the
video, once mentioned in an interview that they saw the connection between winter snow scenes and Christmas, so they added a scene of placing Christmas trees in the house and allowing the snowman to fly to the North Pole to meet Santa. As a result, this story has the "Christmas exclusive" label, and the Snowman derivatives have become the choice for Christmas gifts.[In Briggs' picture book, his snowman just flew over the Brighton Pavilion and never left southern England. ]
"Snowman" illustration. (Photo source: Xinyi)
For many years, the content about "Briggs doesn't like Christmas" has been often used as the title of his manuscript for exclusive interviews, which can easily make readers associate him as a bad old man with a weird temper. Editors, journalists and illustrators who are familiar with him believe that he is just trying to separate himself from the consumerist Christmas and politely restrain himself from being cited by the film screenwriters' creations.
He does not reject commercialization, but he is not keen on this. He humbly thanked the adaptation of the film to make him a household name, but once a cultural and entertainment company is authorized to adapt his picture books, it means that he has lost control of his work, and this loss makes him feel powerless. He hopes that his winter is not limited to Christmas, and he hopes that his picture books will be close to nature and life, rather than synonyms for business. He tried his best to "live" in his creations, and continued to focus, stare and record the joys and sorrows in his life, especially those overlooked and most common existences.
4
Politics is not a taboo for children, and picture books are not an adult preaching
"I have never imagined anything for my readers. Some creators will create for specific groups of children, but I don't have children, so I can't create in that form. I just explore the materials I'm interested in - for example, Santa Claus, I will think about where he lives and what his life looks like - and then put what I think and think and let them come to my pen until I am satisfied with it. Of course, I also hope that others will like it when they read this story."
Entering the 1980s, the personal style of Briggs's works became more and more prominent. Politics, human nature, environmental protection, family, and even technology... During this period, he went more directly to more topics that he had always been interested in, not committed to preaching, but to equal dialogue.
He is blunt and carefully considers the form and techniques of expression. Nicoleet Jones commented on him, "One person is a band", and he is responsible for writing stories, drawing illustrations, designing, typography, editing, and even binding... The imaginary world he built was not like a dream, but on the contrary, there were often cruel, helpless, and regrets. He has no intention of deliberately trying to please children or any readers with whitewashed language and pictures that cater to preferences. He believes that children are individuals with independent thinking and reading tastes, and have the right to obtain the truth, equal dialogue, and independent reading like adults.
"When the Wind Blows" English version cover.
When The Wind Blows (1982) may not be a qualified children's book in the eyes of some editors or parents, etc. The story is set in the Soviet Union launching a nuclear attack on Britain. Briggs uses the form of image novels he likes and is good at. Based on the protagonist of the previous picture book, Gentleman Jim (1980), telling the story of how ordinary people Jim and his wife Hilda, who are bound by their ignorance and encounter nuclear war due to their ignorance without any conditions.
The couple firmly believe in the "Nuclear War Air Defense Asylum Manual" issued by the British government that they thought that they could avoid disasters by drilling into a paper bag. Their shallow ignorance, at first, was fearless armor, but soon brought them into the countdown of lost and powerlessness. For many readers, the most shocking picture is that Briggs uses a nearly blank spread with a slightly pink burning sensation around it to present a devastating moment after the nuclear bomb detonation. The story ends with minimalist blank space: a house swallowed by darkness, a sloping door, a terrifying conversation, and a couple who are difficult to distinguish...
0 The story is inspired by a documentary by the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) about how to deal with nuclear attacks and protect their families. The picture book was released when the Greenham Common Women’s Peace Camp, which protested against the British holding of the Trident nuclear missile, was at the time of the rise.It seems that it is a decisive move that Viking Childrens Books decided to publish this children's book on the theme of anti-nuclear politics. They agree with Briggs and do not believe that politics is a taboo for children's reading. Compared with "whether children can read politics", what is more important is "how to discuss politics with children." The publisher's decision was a support for pacifists such as Briggs, and a protest against the British government's insistence on developing nuclear weapons.
"When the Wind Blows" was adapted into a radio drama and aired on the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) in 1984. The animated film of the same name was released in 1986. Briggs was pleased to be invited and participated in the adaptation and creation. Not surprisingly, this picture book that affected many British pop musicians, cultural people and young people in the 1980s was not introduced or caused a strong response by many countries due to political and public opinion reasons.
animated movie "When the Wind Blows" (1986) screen.
Briggs is accepting children's literature critic Douglas Martin said in an interview: "If children or readers of any age feel that they are not interested in the critical topic or any other topic, they have the right to choose not to read it, and that will be without any loss. However, as creators, if we avoid creating topics that we are interested in, or deliberately kneading the content into preaching stories, it is our greatest negligence."
Although many of his subsequent works have not received strong responses like "Santa Claus" and "Snowman", it is enough to make the most valuable aspects of his creation clearer: he unintentionally avoids the flaws of human nature such as ignorance, arrogance, prejudice, etc., he refuses to romanticize the chaos in the fireworks of the world, he prefers to outline the simplicity and warmth in the fireworks of the world in detail, he firmly believes that the complexity, change and preciousness of human nature lies in reality, and he uses black humor as a frank advice on authoritarianism.
He expressed his views through his creations: If picture books only have whitewashed worlds and adult preaching, it is equivalent to putting children in danger of prejudice from an early age and blindly following authoritarianism. For him, the picture book is his own inner child, showing it honestly to his readers, looking forward to an equal conversation. In 1984, Briggs was selected as a British writer and illustrator and was selected for the 6-person shortlist of the International Andersen Awards.
From left to right: The Man (1982), The Tin-Pot Foreign General and the Old Iron Woman (1984), Unlucky Wally, The Bear (1994).
is more regrettable than losing, and it is even more regrettable that you do not reminisce about the lost and do not record it. Briggs, as always, conveyed this belief in his paintings. Parents meant too much to him. Even after 25 years, he still could not completely get out of the sadness of losing his parents. He could only draft a drawing of his parents at a speed of up to one quarter of an hour each time. He insisted on using an almost cruel way to let himself and readers face "loss", especially the most unforgettable moment - the thin mother lying alone on the hospital bed... Recording, without whitewashing, and not ignoring the plain truth is one of his missions.
In 1998, "A Family in London" was published. From the perspective of artistic expression, it is a culmination of Briggs's lifelong achievements. Some commentators even believe that in terms of text content, this novel deserves nomination for the Booker Prize. (But the Booker Award is only awarded to original novels, and non-fiction novels do not meet the requirements.)
Chinese readers through the movie version of "A Family in London" to understand how this ordinary British family has gone through decades, going through World War II, the rise of welfare countries, and the international Cold War era, getting married and having children, working hard, and having children for the rest of their lives... Some people say that this is the British version of "Ping Ru Meitang", while others think it is a dull and difficult to resonate with. For British readers, this is a valuable modern British chronology that is not told by discourse controllers and historical writers, and records the perspectives of ordinary people. Therefore, it is listed as a must-read book in the British social sciences and history classrooms.
"A Family in London" English version illustration.
5
When time is gone, it disappears, remains and inherits
"…I will wash the tableware of the previous night before having a second breakfast. Grilled toast slices, orange jam and some goat cream—they are so delicious. After the meal I will walk along the Bridleway to the farm and check out the border collie Pepper. Give it some snacks and then go back to my own house. I am still ordering bottled milk because my father was a milkman and I need to support the line in my own way. After picking up the letters and newspapers, I will check out my neighbor, 91-year-old Rennes, who sometimes brings him a sandwich. I will also I'll bring some ginger chocolate to other bedridden neighbors nearby. Then I'll go back to Liz's house, sit by my table full of pencils, and start illustration creation. At around 1:30 pm, I'll start lunch... At 2 o'clock, I'll lie down and rest, and naps are so important to me. At 3 o'clock, I'll walk to the church yard and see Liz's tomb... The older I'll get the faster time passes. My days are filled with trivial matters. I love to go to Lewes' charity shop to buy things. One day, I bought a shirt for £2! You can certainly buy a shirt for £80, but I can't imagine that happening to me."
In the previous marriage, Briggs had expected to give Jane some sense of stability in the form of a marriage. Marriages in the form of law are mixed with a long period of helplessness under the perennial illness and the trivialities of housework. When they meet their partner Liz, they agree to join hands for the rest of their lives in the form of not entering marriage. Over the past 40 years, Liz has witnessed most of his creations, and Liz's children and even grandchildren have given him a lot of creative inspiration and warm moments. Liz passed away in 2015 due to Parkinson and Alzheimer's disease. He was afraid that he would end up in dementia and amnesia like Liz. He wrote some keywords on the edge of the door frame of the kitchen and added a few pieces of what he remembered.
Briggs often denies his familiarity and love for his children, claiming that he does not understand them. His journalist friends and illustrator friends disagreed—“He once pointed to a photo of three grandchildren with Liz and said, ‘This child always likes to climb onto my shoulders when he was a child, and it’s cute. I will pretend to try to climb onto his shoulders, and we can keep playing like this.’” ——This is a cute stubborn old man who is particularly humble in front of his children. In the adult world, he is not good at socializing, is not sophisticated enough, and is stubborn and confident in his creations. He was reluctant to fight with the editors and was unwilling to compromise on some of the commercial needs of publishers - he refused to localize Santa Claus, turn Buckingham Palace into the White House, or delete the toilet scene that made Santa Claus lose his identity...
"The Water Puddle Man" has been introduced and published by Yuefu Culture.
In the children's world, he has always been convinced that children have no prejudice and their sensitivity to "neglected". In his later years, he felt grateful for the opportunity to experience the world through his children's eyes again. He gave the picture book "Puddleman, 2004" to his three grandchildren. He has always cherished the letters from young readers to him and "picking" his works - "The sandwich that Santa Claus ate is wrong! It was cut diagonally, but then it became horizontal."
With these warm companions, Briggs spent a normal, brand new, lonely creation days. He is creating his last work in his life. His strengths have always been his combination of various painting tools and techniques. This time he abandoned ink pens, oil color, colored lead, watercolor, gouache, crayons, chalk, and paper art, and no longer tried to innovate the medium of the drawing board, and returned to nature - only pencil sketches and long and short poems. A nagging collection of hand-painted poems, Time for Lights Out (2020). What has left, what is about to leave, what is savored, what is expected to be retained, and what is passed down unconsciously.
"It's time to turn off the lights" cover of the English version, which will be introduced and published by Yuefu Culture soon.
Briggs has always rarely spoken about his teaching status and his students.He served as a professor at the Brighton Academy of Art for 30 years. When he first entered the school, it was a not-so-known art school. "There is no syllabus, no textbooks, and administrative chaos." Everything depends on the teacher to figure it out. When he retired in 1986, his students included several well-known creators such as Alan Baker, Ian Beck, Chris Riddle, etc. who were active in the British illustration and art circles.
Many students mentioned that Briggs' greatest inspiration for them was to guide them to observe "neglected" and "the most common" and find value worth recording in between. Chris Riddle, a children's illustrator who has won the Kate Greenway Award and the British Children's Literature Award three times and a political comic writer for "The Observer", recalled his mentor, "He is very wise, insightful, and has always encouraged me. His greatest talent lies in enlightening others. He uses his creations and his life to inspire our generation to live with illustration creation and be the real self."
Chris Riddle's farewell poem to Briggs.
In 2012, Briggs was inducted into the British Comics Awards Hall of Fame. In 2017, he was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award of the British Reading Charity Book Trust. Illustrator couple Helen Oxenbury and John Burningham are familiar with Briggs's "cold outside and hot inside". "He seems irritable, but he is actually very kind and has a heart that cannot be softer. He cares more about the freedom of expression in his works, and is afraid of the bonds and responsibilities that come with fame - who would know that he refused to accept the Children’s Laureate for many years?" [The award has been founded in 1999 and is selected every two years, aiming to recognize outstanding British children’s literature writers and illustration creators. Winners must perform some corresponding responsibilities aimed at promoting children's literature, such as school speeches, community activities, book tours, etc. Previous winners include "Grandpa Nice" Michael Rosen, Julia Donaldson, Chris Riddle, etc. ]
Industry insiders call Briggs "Poet Laureate of British Grumpines". His poetry, his insight, his reality, his humor, his extreme, his sorrow, his attachment... are all in his works. At the commemorative exhibition of the 40th anniversary of the publication of "Snowman", Helen Oxenbury, who always remembered his sadness, thoughtfully made up for his snowman, and the two snowmen danced gracefully... Time finally came to annihilation, and leaving was sometimes a reunion. Time takes away the 88-year-old him.
Every winter approaches Christmas, in the rainy, cold and dark winter day in England, this country house with green wooden doors located on the outskirts of East Sussex, England, the phone rings ring more frequently than usual, and visitors come in.
Echoes the picture books "Snowman" and "Santa Claus" placed on the seasonal theme bookshelf in bookstores and libraries; in front of TV or in the cinema, children and parents look forward to watching movies of the same name; in many British cities such as London's West End, Manchester , Edinburgh , and other British cities, the enduring children's musical "Snowman" toured again; dolls, pillows, blankets, toys, tableware, mugs, and even toilet paper printed with snowman patterns, merchants spare no effort to innovate and help the consumption enthusiasm of the Christmas season.
Raymond BriggsGreen wooden doors of country cottage. The picture comes from the documentary "Raymond Briggs: Snowmen, Bogeymen Milkmen" directed by Louise Lockwood. The documentary was aired on BBC (BBC).
"My only Christmas plan is to wait for it to pass faster." Not every visitor knows how the owner is disliked to be disturbed when he is concentrating on creating, or carefully notices the words "NO BELL" posted on the note under the old doorbell. Sometimes careless people ignore the notes posted by the owner on the right side of the door frame, confuse several adjacent green cottages with similar place names, and become uninvited guests who ring the wrong doorbell.
Unfortunately, the owner of this cottage, famous British writer and illustrator Raymond Briggs (also translated as Raymond Briggs), will no longer be troubled by the uninvited Christmas guests this Christmas this year. On the second day after Briggs' death, BBC Two (BBC II) replayed the animated film "Hidden Family in London " which tells his parents' marriage for more than 40 years, paying tribute to the illustrator.
Raymond Briggs Work Scene. The picture comes from the documentary Raymond Briggs.
This man has passed away, and his works have existed. Briggs' personal creation retrospective exhibition is currently on tour in major art venues in the UK. The exhibition was first exhibited at the Winchester Exploration Center in May 2021, covering more than 100 original works by Briggs. Many of the paintings and private archives are disclosed for the first time, aiming to show the changes and advancement of his painting style, breakthroughs and innovations in artistic expression techniques, and the correlation between different works.
collaborative curator Katie Mike Colon believes that his creations are "humorous, keen, and even sometimes subversive." "He used powerful visual narrative techniques to portray a series of universal themes - family and affection, possession and death, politics and class." Another collaborative curator Nicolete Jones saw many familiar figures of ordinary people in the characters written by Briggs. "Santa Claus is as busy as a working person, full of complaints. The checkered creatures remind people of those dispensable and despised figures. The snowman flying in the air and his parents in the picture books are ordinary people everywhere in every era."
Briggs expects to be a "good actor" who can use his brush to synaesthesize the roles between paper. "If (my) character is walking proudly on the road, I need to imagine how he feels, observe him and become him. I hope my illustrations can achieve these two things at the same time."
"Snowman" English version cover, which has been introduced and published by Xinyi.
Although "Snowman" is one of the works that have been translated into the most popular languages and the largest circulation in his creation, it is far from enough to summarize the breadth and depth of his creation.If we want to summarize and review Briggs' breakthrough contribution to picture books, especially the field of image novels, we must trace back to his nearly 70 years of illustration creation experience, carefully savor how he reproduces the characters in fairy tales and nursery rhymes, and how he can image more commonplace and unrespected little people, especially those who rarely go out of the English world for various reasons and are even known only to British readers: Gentleman Jim Hilda [also known as Mr. and Mrs. Bloggs], Ethel Ernest, etc....
Briggs once said, "No matter what you create, there will always be shadows of your own life and your surroundings in the characters you create." His works hide his family images. He doesn't like socializing and is not good at hiding it. In his works and interviews, he left a real, three-dimensional and polygonal him for this world. If we want to analyze how an illustrator grows and achieves in creation, we need to start by deconstructing his life experience and revisiting his daily life.
This issue’s “People Who Write Children’s Books” column, we push a long article to commemorate the children’s book master Raymond Briggs.
1983's Raymond Briggs. (Photo source: Wikipedia)
1
Childhood in troubled times, but the family harbor is always in
1934, Raymond Briggs was born in an ordinary working family in Surrey, England (now owned by London) Wimbleton Park. His parents lived in the same house all their lives, and Briggs also recorded and commemorated his childhood home in a graphic form. In recent years' interviews and recollections, he bluntly expressed his obsession with family affection, especially his parents. "(One of my heirlooms) is the bread-cutting knife and breadboard that my parents have always used. I have used them throughout my childhood."
This old man, who was over 80 years old, looks like a child who has never grown up in his memories. He used his parents' lives as a story and published the graphic novel "Ethel Ernest" in 1998. The story was then brought to the big screen in the form of a hand-drawn animated film, which made many British readers feel strongly resonate with the experiences of their families or their contemporaries.
hand-drawn animated movie "Family in London" (2016).
For picture book readers around the world, they can also find every corner of his childhood home in his early creations. For example, the place where Santa Claus washes and shaves is in his childhood bathroom. The side of Santa’s sink where he does things is the scene of his father doing housework in his childhood memory. The scene of the boy and the snowman taking off, taken from the memories-filled front yard that his father often takes him to play with.
"The house that has the most influence on me was my childhood home in London. The home near Wimbledon Park is a typical British row house from the 1910s. A row of identical or mirrored houses rise along the street, share side walls, and internal institutions are almost exactly the same. The narrow walkways connect the living room, dining room, kitchen, and utility room for housework such as laundry. The second floor has three bedrooms and a bathroom. My bedroom is on the back, overlooking the garden. Usually, working-class families like us live in such a simple and rough-designed house. Our kitchen windows are opposite the next door. Sometimes the clock in the house is broken. Just look at the clock of the neighbor White's house and you can tell the time."
Father Ethel and his milk delivery truck. The picture comes from the documentary Raymond Briggs.
Raymond Briggs's father is a milkman and works all year round. My mother was a maid before marriage, and after marriage, she dealt with the inside and outside of the house, and her whole life was around her son and husband. My mother was 39 years old when she gave birth to him, and she worked extremely hard due to her advanced pregnancy. Taking into account physical conditions and doctor's advice, parents gave up on the idea of having another one. Little Raymond became the only one in the family, and was taken care of by a pair of parents who loved him wholeheartedly.
The joy that his birth brought to this small family, and this family's life that was not rich but still enjoyable, was soon shrouded in fear that the war in World War II is about to sweep London. People in the streets of London were panic, and air defense alarms were becoming more and more frequent. The news came from the broadcast that millions of children were retreating to the countryside. The capable and optimistic father used his spare time to collect building materials and built a simple air-raid shelter in the backyard. My mother, who is relatively gentle by nature, is worried all day long. The couple finally decided to send five-year-old Raymond onto the train and let him join his relatives living in the Dorset countryside to avoid the fire. The first trip in childhood was a lonely journey full of unknowns in troubled times.
Raymond sent his parents the first letter of his life, drawing Aunt Betty, Aunt Fuller and a cow who took good care of him. The tender but neat handwriting briefly describes the carefreeness that life in the countryside should have. "I slept on the camping bed. The milk I drink every morning is not poured out of the milk bottle, but is squeezed out now." The mother felt sorry for her son not to sleep on the bed with a mattress, and the father, who is a milkman, is obviously more interested in the milk he squeezed out now.
Little Raymond remembers that when he met his parents, he was thrilling on the tall haystacks pulled by the carriage; he also remembers seeing London after the baptism of artillery fire, the city was full of devastated and in ruins. Like other Londoners, he remembered many moments in the lives of ordinary people in that era. His father, who was temporarily unemployed due to the war, was recruited to Thames Wharf to clean up the remains of the bones. After working for fourteen hours, he was exhausted and fell in his mother's arms and cried bitterly. Walking out of the bombardment of London, we finally ushered in another Christmas with lights and decorations. The pear tree seeds given by Aunt Fuller were planted by Little Raymond with full expectation. In Wimbledon Park, where the past is revived, each family moved out tables and chairs to hang out along the street to celebrate the victory of the war and the reunion of long separation. There are always people who suffer the pain of losing their son in laughter and sadness, speechless. ——These are all engraved in Raymond's childhood memories.
Like parents of contemporary or similar classes, they look forward to their sons' education to achieve the class leap they have never achieved. When Raymond Jr. became the only child in the neighborhood to be admitted to the grammar school , which is famous for its good teaching quality, they firmly believed that he had "half a foot into the middle class circle" and began to look forward to his son's future career. From childhood to teenager, although Raymond was occasionally naughty, his sensible and well-behaved never disappointed his parents. Briggs, who gradually grew up to be a young man, is more determined to get closer to his dream and become a cartoon painter. In 1949, 15-year-old Briggs decided to leave the grammar school and attend the Wimbledon School of Art. This decision was beyond the expectations of his parents, especially his mother was very anxious. Did his son ruin his path to becoming an office employee?
hand-drawn animated movie "Family in London" (2016).
In 1952, Briggs applied to study at the Central Academy of Art and Design (now affiliated to Central St. Martins College, London) and studied a one-year course in typesetting and text design. After graduating in 1953, he enlisted in the army. Between Egypt, Germany and Catterick, he chose the only option to not go abroad - a rural residence in North Yorkshire, England.
He was well cared for by his parents since childhood, and he seemed to have never fallen in love with long journeys in his life. "I don't like traveling very much. North Yorkshire is far enough for me, and is already 'foreign'." Like some illustrators of his contemporaries (later famous), he was responsible for public opinion propaganda in the army during his two years in the military. It is a seemingly relevant but rather forced thing to apply the painting skills learned in the classroom to the communication and communication work with a strong purpose. When one of his promotional oil paintings was invited to participate in the Joint Exhibition of Young Artists, he illusioned that "I could probably become a famous oil painter." He therefore began his course at Slade School of Fine Art, University College London.
Two years later, in 1957, he "left without anything."At that time, the mainstream consensus in the industry on painting and art was that "those who can use sticky oil paint to create are real artists." Art represented by oil paintings means classics and elegance, and commercial art is regarded as relatively vulgar and cheap; illustration creation, compared with other market-oriented commercial art forms such as advertising, is the most despised. [It is worth mentioning here that in recent years, the International Children's Books Alliance American Sub-Forum (USBBY) has discussed it with the title of "illustration and art". Lisbeth Zwerger, François Place, Roger Mello and many other international Andersen Illustration Award winners and nominees share their indifference in their studies and careers. Their hard experience of clearing the name of "illustration" is surprisingly similar. ]
Briggs still remembers that when he first entered school at the age of 16, the principal who was obsessed with Renaissance art heard that he dreamed of becoming a cartoon painter and asked him furiously: "Boy, do you just want to do this when you come to study art?" He did not reject being surrounded by Renaissance art - Michelangelo, Piero de la Francesca , or other painters - giving him a lot of inspiration and nutrients for his future creation. However, years of art studies have made him feel that he lacks talent in oil painting techniques and media texture, and it is difficult to achieve anything in the field of art and art. He is still looking forward to making a living by illustration creation.
2
Imaging concrete, reminiscence image, speculative picture book
Briggs went to Oxford University Press to apply for a job. Editor Mabel George asked him: "Do you want to draw illustrations for fairy tales, such as painting fairies, giants, and speaking animals...?" Many years later he recalled, "I think this is a very interesting suggestion. I tried it and found that it was very interesting to create pictures for fantasy stories." In 1958, his first job was to create illustrations for Ruth Manning-Sanders' "Peter and Pisky: Cornwall Folk Tales and Fairy Tales Collection". He saw that he had the ability to visualize imagination and image memories, and his teenage dream was no longer out of reach.
In 1961, Briggs began teaching part-time classes at the Brighton School of Art. His parents, who are still worried that his son could not survive on painting, were a little pleased that he became a "teacher", and his daily salary was even equivalent to his father's weekly salary when he retired. Although the income from multiple jobs such as drawing illustrations, creating picture books and part-time teaching is not rich, it is enough to provide enough food and clothing to shoulder family responsibilities.
In 1963, he married Jean Clark, his girlfriend he met while studying at the Academy of Fine Arts. Because Jane En suffers from schizophrenia, the couple decided to DINK for the rest of their lives. The mother had quite a complaint about the marriage but was unable to stop it. The Briggs moved into a village house in West Sussex, a "dirty" shack in the mother's first impression, and in the years that it was converted into a two-story country cottage by Briggs. He really likes the garden at home. The favorite room is the north-facing studio that looks out to the stretch of South Downs and even 26 miles away in clear weather, the dense Sussex Weald stretches to the Ashdown Forest.
"Midnight Adventure" English version cover.
Briggs met several of his mentors one after another. These editors have included his various innovative attempts and personal styles, telling him that "the first priority of every artist is to be himself." "Some stories are too bad, so I might as well write them myself." Briggs handed over the manuscript with a try-through mentality, and the editor agreed to publish without hesitation, which was unexpected. In 1961, at the age of 27, he published his first original picture book, Midnight Adventure. The story is based on his rebellious experience in his youth. He climbed over the wall and entered a golf club and was escorted home by the police.
Before he won the Kate Greenway Award for "The Mother Goose Treasury" (1966), he drew illustrations for 24 works.Commentator Philip Hensher believes that Briggs' creative style at that time was a tribute to the inheritance of tradition and his idol, "the painting style is warm, very moral, a bit mysterious, but very English... He reminds people of Edward Ardizzone and Samuel Palmer". Briggs himself also mentioned his love for Stanley Spencer, a British painter of similar styles during the same period.
"Briggs Goose Mother's Children's Rhyme Golden Dicta" has been introduced and published by Yuefu Culture.
British " Sunday Times " contributor, children's book editor, literary critic Nicolette Jones, see more about Briggs' epoch-making innovation and contribution to illustration creation. In her biography of Briggs published in 2020, she spent a lot of time reviewing the breakthrough and originality of her early creations. Through some works focusing on folk stories, fairy tales and nursery rhymes, Briggs fully practices how to visualize and image memories, apply what he has learned to practice, and does not fear innovation, and begins to gradually form a strong personal style. Repeatable patterns, light and dark texture of colors, combination of painting techniques, spatial layout and composition, perspective selection and presentation... Every subject in the eyes of others should be his experimental field and the carrier for him to express his thinking ability.
He boldly breaks through and pursues the ultimate, without losing his humility. He is not satisfied with drawing architectural details such as paving stones, tracks, wooden fences, bricks and tiles in a single way. Each time it has a different style, color, and quality, but it is in line with the situation. He sometimes put forward some "antimental" printing requirements for the editors, "The colors in this painting should be similar to before, but a little more black will make the grainier feel stronger."
Briggs tried to superimpose thick and dynamic ink painting lines on the Impressionist style oil painting, enriching the texture, light and dark contrast and reading experience of the painting.
He also began to show his interest, thinking and expressiveness in some contrasting concepts such as spatial proportion, conflicts and contradictions, ugliness and sorrows. For example, in the folk story collection "Hohahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha 》 [(Fee Fi Fo Fum, 1964), the title of the book originated from the British quartz. It is famous for its appearance in the classic fairy tale "Jack and the Magic Bean". It sounds like the shouts of a pirate, which can cause fear]. Briggs draws the scene of a fight with a color picture on the right side of the book page, and on the left, he uses black and white sketches to outline the children from the perspective of giants to observe the mini fight scenes, thereby diluting the sense of violence and the transmitted fear of the picture.
Three nursery rhyme stories created by Briggs attracted American children's book editor Alice Torrey. She contacted a British publisher to discuss whether she could publish a complete collection of stories that could be published in multiple English-speaking countries. The 1966 Kate Greenway Award-winning work "The Goose Mama's Children's Rhyme Golden Dicta" was born after one and a half years of preparation and creation.
In today's hundreds of Goose Mother nursery rhyme versions, this version created by Briggs still has a special status because of its originality: most of the children's books of the same era are responsible for the layout of text and illustrations by book designers. In this book with a total of 224 pages and 408 nursery rhymes, Briggs decided the style, texture, size, position and layout of 897 illustrations based on the text content and situation requirements, making the book's style diverse, sometimes extensive, sometimes warm, unconventional, and interesting.
The nursery rhyme "If" in the Chinese version of "Briggs Goose Goose's nursery rhyme Golden Dictation". (Photo source: Yuefu Culture)
For example, on page 211 of the original version, he used a huge comic-style illustration to depict a giant with a beard-blowing stare and anger emerging from his ears, chasing a boy who escaped while secretly having fun. He cleverly combined two irrelevant nursery rhymes through imaginative illustrations. He even tried other illustration techniques. On page 99 of the original version, he used newspaper clippings, hand-painted paper sheets and other collage compositions to reproduce a nursery rhyme about paper and ink "If all the World".
award-winning titled Briggs has brought many publication invitations, including many excellent works, but most of them have not gone out of English-speaking countries. In The Christmas Book (1968), he created illustrations for excerpts from "" and "Paddington Bear". In the other two picture books with racers as the theme, he used sketches of pencils to reflect the sense of speed and technology. Today, these paintings are still out of date and unique. The smooth and round lines, bold and confident composition, and the contrast of light and shadow colors with warm light and shadow have laid the foundation for Briggs' personal creative style.
"Elephant and the Bad Boy" has been introduced and published by Inspiration Culture. "The Elephant and the Bad Baby", published in 1969, is one of the few illustrations in Briggs' creations that have been introduced into the Chinese world. "The elephant asked the bad boy, 'Do you want to go for a ride?' The bad boy answered: 'Yes.'"
author Elfrida Vipont tells a simple and interesting story in repeated sentences and rhyme language: a foodie boy riding a taciturn elephant, crossing the street "bangdong, pounddong, pounddong" all the way, eating and drinking for free, attracting a number of shop owners and stall owners to chase after him. Briggs's cold drink vendors, butcher shop owners, pastry chefs, restaurant hospitality, grocery store owners, candy shop assistants, and fruit stall owners were furious and full of eyes, and they were full of life. This is the first time he has had the opportunity to be an ordinary person with different professional identities in a picture book so densely and imaged in real life. This creation that caused a strong market response was not accidental accumulation.
"Elephant and Bad Boy" real shot.
3
Winter is not limited by Christmas, and the reciprocity in life is in the early stages of studying, marriage and career. Briggs first got involved in society and was also aware of himself. He did not follow the traditional path of class transition as his parents wished. He was getting richer and more powerful, and before he knew it, he was ready to go. In his favorite second-floor studio facing north, works such as "Santa Claus", "Chemacota" and "Snowman" will be born.
The Santa Claus imagined and embodied by Briggs broke the usual convention: a white beard, not young, a little fat, happily sent Christmas gifts to thousands of households. If the traditional image of Santa is more "Christmas" and is a sacred, solemn and powerful religious character, then Briggs's Santa is more down-to-earth, a "dad" with a prototype of life, and even has a bad temper for granted: she loves to eat and drink, like ordinary people, she needs to worry about food, rice, oil and salt, and is often trapped by housework and livelihood.
"I have always liked to discuss those fantasy characters, such as demons or Santa - and imagine them as real... If Santa has to go out to work all night, no matter what the weather is, he should have had enough of that. Who would really like this hard work of rain and rain, others celebrate Christmas, but he has to send parcels to the whole world? Why can't he be a bad-tempered, stubborn old man?"
"Santa Claus", the book has been introduced and published by the Love Tree.
Briggs sees the similarity between Santa and his father's milkman job. He remembered that on Christmas morning in his childhood, he also needed to get up very early to help deliver milk. Even, he lets his father appear in a scene in the book. Two workers who were busy on Christmas meet - on Christmas morning, the milkman greeted Santa Claus, who was also a world-famous man. "Are you still busy, man?" This is a meeting between the working-class Santa Claus and the working-class father.
Briggs never seeks quick success and instant benefits. Most of his works take as short as several months and as long as one or two years. "Santa Claus" is no exception. After a year and a half, the long period of creation is intertwined with indescribable pain of bereavement. The creation began shortly after 1971 when Briggs' parents died one after another, and the manuscript was published in 1973 when his wife died.Like all the hot-selling works that followed, neither his parents nor his wife could share the joy of his future success during his lifetime, which became a regret that accompanied him throughout his life.
Many of the drawings of "Santa Claus" were conceived and drafted in the ward of a hospital in Sussex. My wife, who has been suffering from schizophrenia for a long time, has contracted pneumonia that is difficult to cure. Briggs, who has not yet gotten out of the pain of losing her parents, has to travel between the ward and the studio. He enjoys his efforts to devote himself to his creation and use his beloved work to relieve his depression and depression; he also receives some comfort whenever he shares the latest completed drawings with his wife on the bed.
In 1973, "Santa Claus" was released. Kind friends tried to fill his life with busyness, leaving him with no time to be sad. One of his friends has a house in France and the other settled in Scottish , and they all tacitly asked him to help. The publisher also invited him to participate in overseas activities in Paris, New York and other places. Briggs traveled the most frequently in his life. These trips later provided inspiration for his second Santa picture book, Father Christmas Goes on Holiday (1975), - "Santa Claus can do it,"
"Santa Claus" illustration. (Photo source: Love Tree)
"Santa Claus" won the 1973 Kate Greenway Award. His original breakthrough is that Briggs introduced comic strips and graphic novels into British picture book creation for the first time, blurring the boundaries between the two art forms and justifying the names of both. Through this book, Briggs' picture books have entered the markets of non-English speaking countries such as Japan and South Korea for the first time. (A local reader who loves Japanese comics, regards Briggs as an image novelist in the English-speaking world. When his work toured Japan in 1998, it caused a strong response.)
Nicoleet Jones commented on "Santa Claus", "both funny and sad", "mixed with images of realism and escapism", "and there is no shortage of detailed innovations as always" - for example, he adjusted the humidity and water quality composition of paper to enhance the granulation of watercolor pigments, making the snow in the square more three-dimensional and realistic. Today, can readers born and raised in the digital age, regain the resonance of the world like a child, slow-paced and deep reading through Briggs' detailed outlines? Santa feeds reindeer like a horse. He relies on broadcasts rather than mobile phones to get weather forecasts. The cats and Russell Terrier use their perspective to lead readers through the house and outside the house...
Around 1973, at a banquet held by a publisher, British illustrator couple Helen Oxenbury and John Burningham first met Briggs and began their nearly 50-year friendship. Like him every time he saw in social occasions, Briggs kept checking the time, afraid of missing the last train home. Helen remembers seeing Briggs for the first time, and felt that he was a little cynical, seemed to be rude and humble. There was deep sadness between his words and eyebrows. "It was time for his first wife, Jane En, to leave. I was not sure whether his sadness was born or that he was so lonely because of his relatives' death. That sadness and loneliness seemed to have never left him since then."
" Shortly after (Jane En) I met Liz in a bar near my home. We got along well and walked with us for 40 years. She was a single mother, with two children at the time of eight and six. There were also boarders at their home. Because there is not enough space at home for me to live for a long time. We gradually get used to living in our own homes separately. We have always lived close to each other, which is very convenient to walk around. During this period, I began to create the story of "Chabarium". "
Bogeyman (sometimes also spelled boogeyman or boogerman) is an imaginary monster in European and American folk stories. Sometimes parents use this to scare disobedient children. "If you are disobedient, the monster will come!" Because it comes from legend, the image of this monster is not certain, which gives readers and illustrators a lot of room for imagination.Briggs, under the name of "Fungus the Bogeyman" (1977), tells the dirty life of this kind of filthy monster that he imagines, creating a world that is inverted from human thinking and values.
"Flatville" has been introduced and published by Yuefu Culture.
Surprisingly, the prototype of the creation of Quasteria was his mother Ethel - not because of her appearance, but because of her common temperament. Like his mother, Quasiya, who has a gentle temper, treats people sincerely, and loves his family deeply, is a pacifist. Briggs was not shy about it. In other aspects, C. cerevisia is the opposite of his mother. For example, he is not nitpicking, he is not narrow-minded, he just believes that extreme cleanliness is pathological, and that language and thinking are his true enthusiasm. "Chema" is a chubby, lengthy, detailed, imaginative and experimental story. In most children's picture books of the same era with innocence and warmth as the tone, they are unique.
After two consecutive years of living with the sticky, wet, smelly story protagonist and complex details, Briggs almost instinctively wants to heal himself with a pure, quiet, clean story. When I woke up one day, the light in the house showed a different texture than usual, "It's snowing!"
Inspiration comes from this. In 1978, the picture book "Snowman" was born. It tells the story of a boy and a snowman entering each other's daily lives, becoming friends and saying something else. The snowman was curious about the pots and pans in the house, and even everything in the bathroom, and explored freely. The boy looked down at the snow-covered English countryside and the seaside town from the sky with the snow.
This wordless book (wordless book, or silent book) painted from colored lead uses the layout of image novels, like a storyboard script of a silent movie. The picture of the boy slept soundly at the bedside, Briggs sketched by his partner Liz's son Tom. The plot is simple, slow-paced, and the narrative is smooth like a story, with self-explanatory communication magic. Even though there have been countless versions of the Snowman story in various cultures, the eternal theme of nature and life resonates with readers from all over the world, making this wordless book the book with the largest sales, the most translated versions, and the most international awards among Briggs' works.
cover of "Snowman" in each language.
In 2018, at the 40th anniversary of the publication of "Snowman", nine well-known British illustrators including Shirley Hughes, Helen Oxsonbury, John Burningham, Posy Simmonds, Chris Riddell, etc., paid tribute to Briggs with their own themed paintings.
Almost every one of them has their own creations on the theme of winter or snow. They do not deny the impact of Briggs' "Snowman" on themselves, their families, and especially their children. Shirley Hughes, then 91, said that every winter she still rereads "Snowman" with her grandchildren. Percy Simmonds talked about being attracted to certain inserts and staring at them for a long time. "He showed the rich human nature and the reciprocity of life with extreme softness: whether it is comedy, tragedy, enthusiasm, gentleness, fear, anger, joy, or other... they all end up being warm."
picture book "The Snowman" has always been a story about winter, not Christmas. In 1982, the BBC adapted it into a TV movie of the same name and aired on Channel 4, gaining countless fans. The film was nominated for the 55th Academy Awards for Best Animation Short Film, won the British Academy Television Awards of the year, and became a must-play video for Christmas every year thereafter. Hilary Audus, an animator of the
video, once mentioned in an interview that they saw the connection between winter snow scenes and Christmas, so they added a scene of placing Christmas trees in the house and allowing the snowman to fly to the North Pole to meet Santa. As a result, this story has the "Christmas exclusive" label, and the Snowman derivatives have become the choice for Christmas gifts.[In Briggs' picture book, his snowman just flew over the Brighton Pavilion and never left southern England. ]
"Snowman" illustration. (Photo source: Xinyi)
For many years, the content about "Briggs doesn't like Christmas" has been often used as the title of his manuscript for exclusive interviews, which can easily make readers associate him as a bad old man with a weird temper. Editors, journalists and illustrators who are familiar with him believe that he is just trying to separate himself from the consumerist Christmas and politely restrain himself from being cited by the film screenwriters' creations.
He does not reject commercialization, but he is not keen on this. He humbly thanked the adaptation of the film to make him a household name, but once a cultural and entertainment company is authorized to adapt his picture books, it means that he has lost control of his work, and this loss makes him feel powerless. He hopes that his winter is not limited to Christmas, and he hopes that his picture books will be close to nature and life, rather than synonyms for business. He tried his best to "live" in his creations, and continued to focus, stare and record the joys and sorrows in his life, especially those overlooked and most common existences.
4
Politics is not a taboo for children, and picture books are not an adult preaching
"I have never imagined anything for my readers. Some creators will create for specific groups of children, but I don't have children, so I can't create in that form. I just explore the materials I'm interested in - for example, Santa Claus, I will think about where he lives and what his life looks like - and then put what I think and think and let them come to my pen until I am satisfied with it. Of course, I also hope that others will like it when they read this story."
Entering the 1980s, the personal style of Briggs's works became more and more prominent. Politics, human nature, environmental protection, family, and even technology... During this period, he went more directly to more topics that he had always been interested in, not committed to preaching, but to equal dialogue.
He is blunt and carefully considers the form and techniques of expression. Nicoleet Jones commented on him, "One person is a band", and he is responsible for writing stories, drawing illustrations, designing, typography, editing, and even binding... The imaginary world he built was not like a dream, but on the contrary, there were often cruel, helpless, and regrets. He has no intention of deliberately trying to please children or any readers with whitewashed language and pictures that cater to preferences. He believes that children are individuals with independent thinking and reading tastes, and have the right to obtain the truth, equal dialogue, and independent reading like adults.
"When the Wind Blows" English version cover.
When The Wind Blows (1982) may not be a qualified children's book in the eyes of some editors or parents, etc. The story is set in the Soviet Union launching a nuclear attack on Britain. Briggs uses the form of image novels he likes and is good at. Based on the protagonist of the previous picture book, Gentleman Jim (1980), telling the story of how ordinary people Jim and his wife Hilda, who are bound by their ignorance and encounter nuclear war due to their ignorance without any conditions.
The couple firmly believe in the "Nuclear War Air Defense Asylum Manual" issued by the British government that they thought that they could avoid disasters by drilling into a paper bag. Their shallow ignorance, at first, was fearless armor, but soon brought them into the countdown of lost and powerlessness. For many readers, the most shocking picture is that Briggs uses a nearly blank spread with a slightly pink burning sensation around it to present a devastating moment after the nuclear bomb detonation. The story ends with minimalist blank space: a house swallowed by darkness, a sloping door, a terrifying conversation, and a couple who are difficult to distinguish...
0 The story is inspired by a documentary by the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) about how to deal with nuclear attacks and protect their families. The picture book was released when the Greenham Common Women’s Peace Camp, which protested against the British holding of the Trident nuclear missile, was at the time of the rise.It seems that it is a decisive move that Viking Childrens Books decided to publish this children's book on the theme of anti-nuclear politics. They agree with Briggs and do not believe that politics is a taboo for children's reading. Compared with "whether children can read politics", what is more important is "how to discuss politics with children." The publisher's decision was a support for pacifists such as Briggs, and a protest against the British government's insistence on developing nuclear weapons.
"When the Wind Blows" was adapted into a radio drama and aired on the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) in 1984. The animated film of the same name was released in 1986. Briggs was pleased to be invited and participated in the adaptation and creation. Not surprisingly, this picture book that affected many British pop musicians, cultural people and young people in the 1980s was not introduced or caused a strong response by many countries due to political and public opinion reasons.
animated movie "When the Wind Blows" (1986) screen.
Briggs is accepting children's literature critic Douglas Martin said in an interview: "If children or readers of any age feel that they are not interested in the critical topic or any other topic, they have the right to choose not to read it, and that will be without any loss. However, as creators, if we avoid creating topics that we are interested in, or deliberately kneading the content into preaching stories, it is our greatest negligence."
Although many of his subsequent works have not received strong responses like "Santa Claus" and "Snowman", it is enough to make the most valuable aspects of his creation clearer: he unintentionally avoids the flaws of human nature such as ignorance, arrogance, prejudice, etc., he refuses to romanticize the chaos in the fireworks of the world, he prefers to outline the simplicity and warmth in the fireworks of the world in detail, he firmly believes that the complexity, change and preciousness of human nature lies in reality, and he uses black humor as a frank advice on authoritarianism.
He expressed his views through his creations: If picture books only have whitewashed worlds and adult preaching, it is equivalent to putting children in danger of prejudice from an early age and blindly following authoritarianism. For him, the picture book is his own inner child, showing it honestly to his readers, looking forward to an equal conversation. In 1984, Briggs was selected as a British writer and illustrator and was selected for the 6-person shortlist of the International Andersen Awards.
From left to right: The Man (1982), The Tin-Pot Foreign General and the Old Iron Woman (1984), Unlucky Wally, The Bear (1994).
is more regrettable than losing, and it is even more regrettable that you do not reminisce about the lost and do not record it. Briggs, as always, conveyed this belief in his paintings. Parents meant too much to him. Even after 25 years, he still could not completely get out of the sadness of losing his parents. He could only draft a drawing of his parents at a speed of up to one quarter of an hour each time. He insisted on using an almost cruel way to let himself and readers face "loss", especially the most unforgettable moment - the thin mother lying alone on the hospital bed... Recording, without whitewashing, and not ignoring the plain truth is one of his missions.
In 1998, "A Family in London" was published. From the perspective of artistic expression, it is a culmination of Briggs's lifelong achievements. Some commentators even believe that in terms of text content, this novel deserves nomination for the Booker Prize. (But the Booker Award is only awarded to original novels, and non-fiction novels do not meet the requirements.)
Chinese readers through the movie version of "A Family in London" to understand how this ordinary British family has gone through decades, going through World War II, the rise of welfare countries, and the international Cold War era, getting married and having children, working hard, and having children for the rest of their lives... Some people say that this is the British version of "Ping Ru Meitang", while others think it is a dull and difficult to resonate with. For British readers, this is a valuable modern British chronology that is not told by discourse controllers and historical writers, and records the perspectives of ordinary people. Therefore, it is listed as a must-read book in the British social sciences and history classrooms.
"A Family in London" English version illustration.
5
When time is gone, it disappears, remains and inherits
"…I will wash the tableware of the previous night before having a second breakfast. Grilled toast slices, orange jam and some goat cream—they are so delicious. After the meal I will walk along the Bridleway to the farm and check out the border collie Pepper. Give it some snacks and then go back to my own house. I am still ordering bottled milk because my father was a milkman and I need to support the line in my own way. After picking up the letters and newspapers, I will check out my neighbor, 91-year-old Rennes, who sometimes brings him a sandwich. I will also I'll bring some ginger chocolate to other bedridden neighbors nearby. Then I'll go back to Liz's house, sit by my table full of pencils, and start illustration creation. At around 1:30 pm, I'll start lunch... At 2 o'clock, I'll lie down and rest, and naps are so important to me. At 3 o'clock, I'll walk to the church yard and see Liz's tomb... The older I'll get the faster time passes. My days are filled with trivial matters. I love to go to Lewes' charity shop to buy things. One day, I bought a shirt for £2! You can certainly buy a shirt for £80, but I can't imagine that happening to me."
In the previous marriage, Briggs had expected to give Jane some sense of stability in the form of a marriage. Marriages in the form of law are mixed with a long period of helplessness under the perennial illness and the trivialities of housework. When they meet their partner Liz, they agree to join hands for the rest of their lives in the form of not entering marriage. Over the past 40 years, Liz has witnessed most of his creations, and Liz's children and even grandchildren have given him a lot of creative inspiration and warm moments. Liz passed away in 2015 due to Parkinson and Alzheimer's disease. He was afraid that he would end up in dementia and amnesia like Liz. He wrote some keywords on the edge of the door frame of the kitchen and added a few pieces of what he remembered.
Briggs often denies his familiarity and love for his children, claiming that he does not understand them. His journalist friends and illustrator friends disagreed—“He once pointed to a photo of three grandchildren with Liz and said, ‘This child always likes to climb onto my shoulders when he was a child, and it’s cute. I will pretend to try to climb onto his shoulders, and we can keep playing like this.’” ——This is a cute stubborn old man who is particularly humble in front of his children. In the adult world, he is not good at socializing, is not sophisticated enough, and is stubborn and confident in his creations. He was reluctant to fight with the editors and was unwilling to compromise on some of the commercial needs of publishers - he refused to localize Santa Claus, turn Buckingham Palace into the White House, or delete the toilet scene that made Santa Claus lose his identity...
"The Water Puddle Man" has been introduced and published by Yuefu Culture.
In the children's world, he has always been convinced that children have no prejudice and their sensitivity to "neglected". In his later years, he felt grateful for the opportunity to experience the world through his children's eyes again. He gave the picture book "Puddleman, 2004" to his three grandchildren. He has always cherished the letters from young readers to him and "picking" his works - "The sandwich that Santa Claus ate is wrong! It was cut diagonally, but then it became horizontal."
With these warm companions, Briggs spent a normal, brand new, lonely creation days. He is creating his last work in his life. His strengths have always been his combination of various painting tools and techniques. This time he abandoned ink pens, oil color, colored lead, watercolor, gouache, crayons, chalk, and paper art, and no longer tried to innovate the medium of the drawing board, and returned to nature - only pencil sketches and long and short poems. A nagging collection of hand-painted poems, Time for Lights Out (2020). What has left, what is about to leave, what is savored, what is expected to be retained, and what is passed down unconsciously.
"It's time to turn off the lights" cover of the English version, which will be introduced and published by Yuefu Culture soon.
Briggs has always rarely spoken about his teaching status and his students.He served as a professor at the Brighton Academy of Art for 30 years. When he first entered the school, it was a not-so-known art school. "There is no syllabus, no textbooks, and administrative chaos." Everything depends on the teacher to figure it out. When he retired in 1986, his students included several well-known creators such as Alan Baker, Ian Beck, Chris Riddle, etc. who were active in the British illustration and art circles.
Many students mentioned that Briggs' greatest inspiration for them was to guide them to observe "neglected" and "the most common" and find value worth recording in between. Chris Riddle, a children's illustrator who has won the Kate Greenway Award and the British Children's Literature Award three times and a political comic writer for "The Observer", recalled his mentor, "He is very wise, insightful, and has always encouraged me. His greatest talent lies in enlightening others. He uses his creations and his life to inspire our generation to live with illustration creation and be the real self."
Chris Riddle's farewell poem to Briggs.
In 2012, Briggs was inducted into the British Comics Awards Hall of Fame. In 2017, he was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award of the British Reading Charity Book Trust. Illustrator couple Helen Oxenbury and John Burningham are familiar with Briggs's "cold outside and hot inside". "He seems irritable, but he is actually very kind and has a heart that cannot be softer. He cares more about the freedom of expression in his works, and is afraid of the bonds and responsibilities that come with fame - who would know that he refused to accept the Children’s Laureate for many years?" [The award has been founded in 1999 and is selected every two years, aiming to recognize outstanding British children’s literature writers and illustration creators. Winners must perform some corresponding responsibilities aimed at promoting children's literature, such as school speeches, community activities, book tours, etc. Previous winners include "Grandpa Nice" Michael Rosen, Julia Donaldson, Chris Riddle, etc. ]
Industry insiders call Briggs "Poet Laureate of British Grumpines". His poetry, his insight, his reality, his humor, his extreme, his sorrow, his attachment... are all in his works. At the commemorative exhibition of the 40th anniversary of the publication of "Snowman", Helen Oxenbury, who always remembered his sadness, thoughtfully made up for his snowman, and the two snowmen danced gracefully... Time finally came to annihilation, and leaving was sometimes a reunion. Time takes away the 88-year-old him.In this world where we are in, there is a missing elderly person who insists on ordering bottled milk. Will there be one more child who likes to order bottled milk in a certain block?
—
Reference:
1. A Yuan: The Disappearing Snowman | The Humor and Sadness of Picture Book Master Raymond Buliggs
2.Documentary - Raymond Briggs: Snowmen, Bogeymen Milkmen. By Louise Lockwood.
https://vimeo.com/376458587
3.Bailey, Jason. (2022.08). Raymond Briggs, Who Drew a Wordless ‘Snowman,’ Dies at 88. New York Times.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/10/books/raymond-briggs-dead.htmlhtml
4.Barnett, Laura. (2014.12). How I made: Raymond Briggs on Father Christmas.
https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2014/dec/16/how-i-made-father-christmas-by-raymond-briggs
5.Book Trust. (2022.08). ‘Why I Love Raymond Briggs’: famous fans of the author-illustrator.
https://www.booktrust.org.uk/news-and-features/features/2017/february/why-i-love-raymond-briggs-famous-fans-of-the-author-illustrator/
6.Briggs, Raymond. (2002.11). Why I'd like to be a proper author. The Guardian.
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2002/nov/02/comics
7.Dunn, Daisy. (2020.12). The grumpy genius of Raymond Briggs. The Spectator.
https://www.spector.co.uk/article/the-grumpy-genius-of-raymond-briggs
8.Ferguson, Donna. (2018.12). At last, a partner for the Snowman who has melted hearts for 40 years. The Guardian.
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/dec/02/snowman-raymond-briggs-artists-40-years-melting-hearts-christmas
9.Greenstreet, Rosanna. (2007.12). Raymond Briggs QA. The Guardian.
https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2007/dec/22/weekend7.weekend2
10.Hampshire Cultural Trust. (2021.05). QA with Katie McCurrach and Nicolette Jones.
https://www.cultureoncall.com/q-a-with/
11.Jordan, Justine. (2019.12). Raymond Briggs: ‘Everything takes so bloody long when you’re old’. The Guardian.
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/dec/21/raymond-briggs-interview-time-for-lights-outtml1
12.Jones, Nicolette. (2020). Raymond Briggs: The Illustrators Series. Thames Hudson.
13.Lambert, Laura. (2017.01). List written on a wall that helps Snowman author Raymond Briggs stave off dementia after his mother and partner died from the condition. Daily Mail.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4126054/List-helps-author-Raymond-Briggs-stave-dementia.htmlhtml
14.Martin, Douglas. “The Telling Line” from Essays on fifteen contemporary book illustrators. Delacorte Press. 1989. p. 228 – 242
15.Oxenbury, Helen. (2022.08). ‘He was always desperate to avoid being schmoozed at parties’: the Raymond Briggs I knew. The Telegraph.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/books/what-to-read/always-desperate-avoid-schmoozed-parties-raymond-briggs-knew/
16.Riddell, Chris. Marvellous for Raymond Briggs. A poem posted on Twitter.
https://twitter.com/chrisriddell50/status/1557301509150457856
17.Simmonds, Posy. (2022.08). Raymond Briggs was famous for his grumpiness – but behind the facade he was shy, thoughtful and kind. The Guardian.
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2022/aug/11/raymond-briggs-writer-illustrator-children-readers-posy-simmonds
18.The Guardian. (2022.08). The Snowman, the Bogeyman and Father Christmas: the world of Raymond Briggs – in pictures.
https://www.theguardian.com/books/gallery/2022/aug/10/the-snowman-the-bogeyman-and-father-christmas-the-world-of-raymond-briggs-author-illustrator-in-pictures
19.The Irish News. (2018.12). Illustrators reimagine The Snowman on 40th anniversary.
https://www.irishnews.com/magazine/entertainment/2018/12/02/news/illustrators-reimagine-the-snowman-on-40th-anniversary-1498954/
20.We Are The Mutants. (2018.06). The Uncoziest Catastrophe: Raymond Briggs’ ‘When the Wind Blows’, 1982.
https://wearthemutants.com/2018/06/19/the-uncoziest-catastrophe-raymond-briggs-when-the-wind-blows-1982/
21.Webber, Richard. (2014.12). Raymond Briggs: ‘I’m not a fan of Christmas. It’s a great fuss about nothing’. The Guardian.
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/dec/19/raymond-briggs-not-a-fan-of-christmas-snowman-my-family-values
22.Wintle, Angela. (2017.12). Snowman author Raymond Briggs: where I’ll be hiding from Christmas. The Times.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/snowman-author-raymond-briggs-where-ill-be-hiding-from-christmas-nrgvbf2jd
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