Achieving critical and popular success among adults and children, he is best known in Britain for his 1978 story The Snowman, a book without words whose cartoon adaptation is televised and whose musical adaptation is staged every Christmas. 'In Fungus the Bogeyman I wanted to show the petty nastiness of life - slime and snot and spit and dandruff, all this awful stuff which is slightly funny because it detracts from human dignity and our pretensions.Raymond Redvers Briggs CBE (18 January 1934 – 9 August 2022) was an English illustrator, cartoonist, graphic novelist and author. 'Most of my ideas seem to be based on a simple premise: let's assume that something imaginary - a snowman, a Bogeyman, a Father Christmas - is wholly real and then proceed logically from there.'

it is done entirely with pencil crayons, with no line in pen or pencil and no washes of ink or watercolour.' 'People often ask about the technique in (The Snowman). And all that's after months of getting ideas, writing and planning.' Pencilling - 20 hours, inking - 18 hours, colouring - 25 hours. 'I once kept a record of the time it took to do two pages. If the figure is to walk jauntily with its nose in the air, you have to imagine what that feels like.' 'The essence of being able to draw from memory (is) to be a mini actor. I wanted to do something which was clean, pleasant, fresh and wordless and quick.' He says that the book was partly inspired by its predecessor, Fungus The Bogeyman - 'For two years I worked on Fungus, buried amongst muck, slime and words, so. Raymond was awarded the Kate Greenaway Medal in 1966 for his fourth picture book, The Mother Goose Treasury, and again in 1973 for Father Christmas. Published in 1978, The Snowman is perhaps Raymond's best-loved creation. His first work was in advertising, but before long he was winning acclaim as a children's book illustrator as well as teaching illustration at Brighton College of Art. After completing a typography course at the Central School of Art, and two years of National Service, Raymond went on to the Slade School to study painting. Raymond's unique characterisation of Father Christmas is based on his father - 'Father Christmas and the milkman both have wretched jobs: working in the cold, wet and dark.' His parents also influenced the character of Jim and Hilda, the victims of nuclear fall-out, in When The Wind Blows. Raymond left school aged 15 to study painting at Wimbledon School of Art. His father was a milkman his mother a former lady's maid.

Raymond Briggs' parents have proved an important source of inspiration to the author/artist.

He was born in Wimbledon Park on the 18th of January 1934 and currently lives in Sussex. Raymond Briggs is one of the foremost creators of illustrated books for adults and children, including the unforgettable The Snowman and Father Christmas.

When the wind blows by raymond briggs