Much loved illustrator, cartoonist and author Raymond Briggs (1934-2022), best known for his 1978 classic The Snowman, produced a treasure trove of work.

His books include Father Christmas, Father Christmas Goes on Holiday, Fungus the Bogeyman, When the Wind Blows, The Tin-Pot Foreign General and the Old Iron Woman, The Man, The Bear and Ethel & Ernest.

These books have been translated into many languages and adapted into films, plays and animations for television.

The Snowman was first broadcast on Boxing Day 1982 and has been shown every Christmas since, along with the more recent The Snowman and The Snowdog.

Graphic novel Ethel & Ernest 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.

Pins and Needles tour a theatre production of The Bear and the Lyric Hammersmith’s production of Father Christmas has been an annual feature for over a decade.

His final publication, Time for Lights Out, in which Raymond contemplates old age and death, was published by Jonathan Cape in 2019 to great critical acclaim.

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. The Snowman was also voted one of The Greatest Children’s Books of All Time in a 2023 BBC Culture poll compiled by 177 book experts from across 56 countries.