The Tin-Pot Foreign General and the Old Iron Woman

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Briggs has recently returned to illustrating, with Alan Ahlberg’s interactive children’s books The Adventures of Bert and A Bit More Bert (2001-2), but his own latest, The Puddleman (2004) is another idiosyncratic work, about a child’s appreciation of a character who puts puddles in the ground. He has now achieved a subtle and expressive form, equally able to move and entertain us. He has, says Nicolette Jones, ‘elevated the standing of the art of strip illustration and added status to children’s books’. Author and illustrator Raymond Briggs, best-known for the 1978 children’s picture book The Snowman, has died aged 88.

Deputy Labour leader Angela Rayner added: “Raymond Briggs brought so much magic and joy to so many. Briggs’ final book, Time for Lights Out (2019), is a poignant, funny and honest exploration of the experience of ageing and reaching the end of life in the form of a patchwork of verse, drawings and random thoughts. Ms Dow said Briggs had been “unique” and had “inspired generations of creators of picture books, graphic novels, and animations."Prompted by the poor quality of some of the novels he was illustrating, he produced his own, The Strange House (1961), an adventure story, and gave it to an editor friend hoping for some constructive criticism. To Briggs’ astonishment, the editor had it published.

Find sources: "The Tin-Pot Foreign General and the Old Iron Woman"– news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR ( May 2022) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message)His family said: “We know that Raymond’s books were loved by and touched millions of people around the world, who will be sad to hear this news.