The extensive book collection of Raymond Briggs, the British author and illustrator best known for creating *The Snowman* and *Fungus the Bogeyman*, is now available for purchase through Oxfam’s bookshop in Hove and its online store. The collection of more than 1,000 volumes was donated by Briggs’s estate following his death in August 2022 at the age of 88.
Briggs’s library encompasses a wide range of genres, including illustration, comics, novels, and social history. Notable items include works by Charles Schulz, the creator of *Peanuts*, and the Winnie-the-Pooh illustrator E.H. Shepard. Among the highlights is a signed first edition of *Woman’s World* (2005) by Graham Rawle, a book inspired by the South Downs landscape near Hove, where Briggs lived for over five decades.
The South Downs also served as the backdrop for Briggs’s 1978 picture book *The Snowman*, which features Brighton’s Royal Pavilion. Briggs was deeply connected to the local area, teaching illustration at Brighton School of Art from the early 1960s until 1986. His work is recognized for subverting traditional children’s storytelling, exemplified by titles like *Fungus the Bogeyman* (1977) and *Father Christmas* (1973), which portrayed a grumpy Santa Claus. Briggs once explained that he approached children’s and adult books with the same creative mindset, emphasizing realism in his depiction of fantastical creatures.
The animated adaptation of *The Snowman* premiered in 1982 and has become a seasonal television staple, often broadcast during the Christmas period. Following Briggs’s passing, children’s author Michael Rosen praised him as a “great artist with a great heart,” highlighting the enduring impact of his work.
Oxfam’s volunteer Martin Hill described the collection as offering “a wonderful glimpse of the visual and intellectual world” that shaped Briggs as one of Britain’s most distinctive illustrators. The books vary widely in subject matter, reflecting Briggs’s diverse interests, including domestic life, aging, and wartime experiences, as well as dark and humorous themes. The collection includes around 30 comic annuals from the 1950s, which provide insight into the influences behind Briggs’s unique style.
Among the assortment are pamphlets on nuclear disarmament, a theme Briggs explored in his 1982 graphic novel *When the Wind Blows*. Other notable works in the collection include *Bert Fegg’s Nasty Book for Boys and Girls* (1974) by Monty Python’s Terry Jones and Michael Palin, a set of John Constable’s reproduced sketches, and a first edition of *Riddley Walker*, a post-apocalyptic novel by Russell Hoban.
Prices on the Oxfam online store range from £5.99 for some titles up to £400 for the signed first edition of Rawle’s *Woman’s World*, offering collectors and readers a chance to engage closely with the literary and artistic influences behind Briggs’s celebrated career.