Raymond Briggs
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Raymond Briggs (18 January 1934 - 9 August 2022) was an English author and illustrator known for his picture books.
His books for children include Father Christmas (awarded the Kate Greenaway Medal), Father Christmas Goes on Holiday, Fungus the Bogeyman, The Snowman (a magical and completely wordless tale that was adapted into a beloved animated film), and The Man.
His books for older readers -- disconcertingly illustrated in the same cartoony style -- include Gentleman Jim, When the Wind Blows (a darkly comic take on nuclear holocaust from the point-of-view of a simple cheerful middle-aged couple), and The Tin-Pot Foreign General and the Old Iron Woman (a satire of The Falklands War).
Works by Raymond Briggs with their own trope pages include:
Raymond Briggs provides examples of the following tropes:
- Bad Santa: The titular character of Father Christmas (well, not really bad, but less squeaky-clean and relentlessly jolly than most portrayals).
- Delusions of Eloquence: The protagonist of Gentleman Jim.
- Peek-a-Boogieman: The protagonist of Fungus The Bogeyman. Scaring "drycleaners" (ordinary humans) is merely his day-job.
- Things That Go Bump in the Night: Fungus The Bogeyman is about the day-to-day life of such a creature.
- Write Who You Know:
- Ethel and Ernest is about the lives of Briggs' parents.
- The Bloggses from Gentleman Jim and When The Wind Blows are based on Briggs' parents.
- A milkman resembling his father, Ernest, makes an appearance in Father Christmas.
- According to Blooming Books, an analysis of Briggs' works, Briggs apparently based the facial appearance of Fungus from Fungus the Bogeyman upon a caricature of his mother.