It is with great sadness that we confirm that Raymond Briggs has died.
Best known for his 1978 classic, The Snowman, Raymond Briggs has produced a treasure trove of work, becoming one of the most innovative and popular author/illustrators of our time.
His books include Father Christmas (1973), Father Christmas Goes on Holiday (1975), Fungus the Bogeyman (1977), When the Wind Blows (1982), The Tin-Pot Foreign General and the Old Iron Woman (1984), The Bear (1994) and Ethel & Ernest (1998).
These books have been translated into many languages and adapted into films, plays and animations for television.
Graphic novel Ethel & Ernest – a biography of his beloved parents, who were a huge inspiration for Raymond throughout his life – tells the story of how his father, a milkman, met his mother, a lady’s maid, and how they continued to live in the same house for forty-one years. An animated feature film based on the novel was released in 2016.
The Snowman has sold over 5.5m copies in various formats around the world and an animated version, produced by John Coates for Channel 4, was first broadcast on Boxing Day 1982 and has been shown every Christmas since.
Raymond has won many awards and accolades throughout his career, including the Kurt Maschler Award, The Children’s Book of the Year, the Dutch Silver Pen Award, and the prestigious Kate Greenaway Award twice for his Mother Goose Nursery Rhyme Treasuryand for Father Christmas.
More recently Raymond was honoured with a CBE for service to literature in the Queen’s 2017 Birthday Honours as well as a BookTrust Lifetime Achievement Award which celebrates the body of work of an author or illustrator who has made an outstanding contribution to children’s literature.
His final book, Time for Lights Out, in which Raymond contemplates old age and death, was published by Jonathan Cape in 2019 to critical acclaim.
All press enquiries to Jasmine Joynson, Penguin Random House Children’s: jjoynson@penguinrandomhouse.co.uk / 07796 536 764
Penguin Random House, Raymond’s publisher, have sent out an official statement which can be found below: