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Raymond Briggs was born in 1934 to a milkman father and a mother who had been a lady's maid. He left school at 15 to study painting at Wimbledon School of Art. After a typography class at the Central School of Art and two years of national service he went to the Slade School of Art to study painting. His first work was in advertising but he was soon winning acclaim as a children's book illustrator as well as teaching illustration at Brighton College of Art.

Raymond Briggs is one of the foremost creators of illustrated books for adults and children. He has won the Kate Greenaway Medal twice, as well as numerous other awards.

On himself

He rarely draws from life, believing 'the essence of being able to draw from memory is to be a mini-actor. If the figure is to walk jauntily with its nose in the air, you have to imagine what that feels like'.

His characterisation of his Father Christmas is based on his father, a milkman – 'I knew something about the working conditions of people who have to deliver things, and I could imagine what a hell of a job that was – freezing, cold, lonely, unsociable hours – enough to make anyone a bit grumpy'. His parents also influenced the character of Jim and Hilda, the victims of nuclear fallout in When The Wind Blows.

'I didn't read much as child and during the war I didn't have comics; but after the war I used to see the odd Beano or Dandy and in those days the Daily Mirror had a whole page of comic strips. For Father Christmas I bought lots of comics and studied the form.' His trademark comic book format allows him room for everything he wants to put in – 'Most picture books have 32 pages and that isn't nearly enough'.

'I don't really plan ahead – usually stories just happen, except The Snowman, which was a very conscious reaction to Fungus the Bogeyman – after all that slime I really felt the need for something clean and pleasant. Most of my ideas seem to be based on a simple premise; let's assume that something imaginary – a snowman, a Bogeyman, a father Christmas – is wholly real and proceed logically from there.'

'I always used to draw in pencil, then go over it in ink. But the drawings lost a lot of their freshness. To keep the spontaneity I now make photocopies of my pencil drawings, then work on those with colour. I make several copies so, if I muck it up I just start again and I've still got the original drawing. Using crayons, I find the colour grows into the picture and you get a certain softness.'

Films

The Snowman

Father Christmas

The Bear

When The Wind Blows

See the entry for Raymond Briggs on ContemporaryWriters.com

See details of books in print from enCompassCulture.com

External links

BBC profile of Raymond Briggs