40 Enchanting Years

As Raymond Briggs’ The Snowman celebrates its 40th anniversary this year the award-winning artist talks about what inspired him

- Duncan Hall

For the past ten years Raymond’s hand-drawn imagery for The Snowman has provided the backdrop for a charity fundraising ball in aid of Chestnut Tree House. It has become the biggest event on the children’s hospice’s fundraising calendar, raising £566,025 last year in its tenth event.

The artist, who has lived in Westmeston, near Ditchling, for more than 50 years, was happy to support the charity. “Chestnut Tree House is unique,” he says. “It was a privilege to be asked to help in any way. I am delighted that my Snowman has helped Chestnut Tree House raise so much money over the last ten years to provide care for so many local children and families.”

Raymond was born in Wimbledon Park in 1934. Sixty-four years later he was to explore both his early years and his parents’ relationship in the brilliant Ethel and Ernest. The book was turned into a faithful animation which was first broadcast at Christmas in 2016. “I had always been intrigued by the way my parents first met,” he says. “Dad cycling to work through a posh square in Belgravia, Mum a maid servant dusting upstairs – opens the window to shake the duster – Dad’s eye is caught by the flicker of yellow, high up on his left, he looks up, sees a young woman waving. He, being a bit of a lad, waves back… two years later – ME!”

It wasn’t the first time he had featured his parents in his work – in 1973’s hit picture book Father Christmas his milkman dad passes the time of day with the jolly man in red, asking: “Still at it, mate?” His parents can also be found within some of his other books. “I was an only child and so they both played a huge part in my life,” he says. “Consequently the married couple in several of the books are like them, a couple who are not stupid but are simple and not well educated.”