Ernest Briggs and Ethel Briggs were the parents of Raymond Briggs.
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Raymond’s father, Ernest Briggs, worked as a milkman while his mother, Ethel Briggs, had been a lady’s maid.
Ernest Briggs and Ethel Briggs married in 1930. However, after being together for over 40 years, they both died in 1971.
A 1998 graphic novel Ethel & Ernest (subtitled “A True Story”) was written by British author and illustrator Raymond Briggs. It tells the story of the lives of his parents from their first meeting in 1928 to their deaths in 1971.
Ethel Briggs was born in 1895, and Ernest Briggs in 1900. When they met, Ernest was a delivery man on a bicycle, while Ethel worked as a maid. She became a housewife when she marries, and later becomes a clerk in an office during the Second World War.
They raise their son, Raymond Briggs, living in the same terraced house for 40 years, in a suburban street, through the Great Depression, World War II, the advent of television and other events.
The story was turned into an animated film and featured Jim Broadbent and Brenda Blethyn which, after appearing in cinemas was aired by the BBC during Christmas 2016.
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Ethel & Ernest won the “Best Illustrated Book of the Year” at the 1999 British Book Awards.
Raymond Briggs was a British illustrator, cartoonist, graphic novelist and author.
Briggs was born on January 18, 1934 in London and he attended Wimbledon School of Art and Central School of Art.
After undergoing national service he returned to study painting at University College London.
He became a professional illustrator, working in advertising, and then creating books as well as teaching illustration at Brighton College of Art.
His 1966 book of nursery rhymes, The Mother Goose Treasury, won the Kate Greenaway medal.
Briggs subsequently produced several novels including Father Christmas, Father Christmas Goes on Holiday, Fungus the Bogeyman, The Snowman, When the Wind Blows, The Tin-Pot Foreign General and the Old Iron Woman.
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