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Books by the creators of The Snowman and Fungus the Bogeyman have gone on sale at Oxfam’s Hove bookshop in East Sussex and on the Internet.
More than 1,000 books from the collection of Raymond Briggs, a British writer and illustrator, were later donated by his estate. He died at the age of 88 in 2022.
The Briggs Library features comics, illustrations, books and history, including works by Peanuts creator Charles Schulz and Winnie-the-Pooh illustrator EH Shepard and a signed first edition of Graham Rawle’s Woman’s World, a 2005 book made from scraps of women’s pamphlets.
Other artists in the Briggs library include Shirley Hughes, Aubrey Beardsley, Edward Gorey and Posy Simmonds. There are about 30 of the games from the 50s, which provide “a glimpse into the vivid world that shaped Briggs”, according to Oxfam.
“The interesting thing is the diversity,” said Martin Hill, who works at Oxfam Hove’s bookshop. “You start to see connections between the books Briggs created and the books and artists he chose to have around him.”
“There are illustrators and illustrators, but you get books about old age, bathrooms, domestic life, old age and wartime dairy farmers,” he added. “It’s challenging, funny, strange and at times dark – which is familiar to anyone familiar with Briggs’ work.”
The collection includes pamphlets on nuclear weapons, a subject explored in Briggs’ 1982 book When the Wind Blows. The 1974 book by Monty Python’s Terry Jones and Michael Palin, Bert Fegg’s Nasty Book for Boys and Girls, has been rewritten, along with illustrations by John Constable and the first book of Riddley Walker, a post-apocalyptic novel by Russell Hoban.
Born in Wimbledon in 1934, Briggs later spent more than 50 years living under the South Downs near Hove. The area inspired the 1978 picture book The Snowman, featuring Brighton’s Royal Pavilion. Briggs taught illustration at Brighton School of Art from the early 60s until 1986.
He became known for picture books that subverted the conventions of children’s fairy tales, such as 1977’s Fungus the Bogeyman and 1973’s Father Christmas, which compared the terrifying Santa Claus.
“I loved finding the best creatures and taking care of them,” Briggs said in an interview and the Guardian in 2019, with the publication of his memoir Time for Lights Out. “I don’t see any difference between writing for children and books for adults, my opinion is exactly the same.
The Snowman cartoons became a hit in 1982, and have been aired almost every Christmas since.
After the death of Briggs, the children’s author Michael Rosen said that “we had the opportunity to read and see a great work from a great artist with a great heart”.
The Oxfam group “offers a stunning glimpse into the visual and intellectual world of one of Britain’s most celebrated artists”, said Hill. Book prices at online store from £5.99 to £400 for a first edition of Rawle’s Woman’s World.
