(London) British illustrator Raymond Briggs, whose album The Snowman enchanted generations of children around the world, died at the age of 88, his family announced on Wednesday.
Posted at 10:01 a.m.
“We know that Raymond’s books have touched millions of people around the world, who will be saddened to hear this news,” his relatives said in a press release.
The Snowman, an album without text published in 1978 delicately drawn in colored pencil, is his best-known work, sold 5.5 million copies worldwide. Its hero is a young boy with red hair whose snowman built with his hands comes to life.
Adapted into an animated film in 1982 and presented with an introduction by singer David Bowie, the film and its unforgettable music have remained associated with the magic of Christmas ever since.
“He cherished the drawings of his admirers, especially those of children, and hung them on the wall of his studio,” his family said.
“Everyone close to him knew his irreverent humor, which could prove biting when it came to power. He had liked the editorial of the newspaper The Guardian who described him as an ‘iconoclastic national treasure’,” the same source added.
Briggs’ most famous works are inspired by his life and are nostalgic for the England of his childhood, in the 1930s and 1940s in Wimbledon, south-west London.
His work evokes the British social history of the twentiethe century, reflecting social class, education and changing politics.
holy santa claus (1973) was Raymond Briggs’ first big hit. In this album, Santa Claus is an irascible old man who hates the cold and the snow, and finds it very difficult to deliver presents.
Fungus the Bogeyman, another classic released in 1977, has as its hero an unsavory creature plagued by existential anxieties. The illustrator said he was inspired by himself — a “miserable, disillusioned, depressed middle-aged man” — to create this character.
More recently, in 2019, Raymond Briggs evoked aging and death in a melancholic album (Time for Lights Out). He also collaborated with The Oldiea magazine created as a “cheerful alternative to a press obsessed with youth and celebrity”.