Raymond Briggs' Writing and Drawing Desk Goes on Display for First Time

A new exhibition featuring never-seen-before artworks and items from the home of author-illustrator Raymond Briggs has opened in the area of East Sussex where he made his home.  

Bloomin’ Brilliant: The Life and Work of Raymond Briggs at Ditchling Museum of Art + Craft runs until October 27 and brings together 30 items from the late author´s estate with more than 100 original artworks from his 60-year career. The exhibition joins up with the Raymond Briggs: A Retrospective touring show from the Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration. 

This exhibition includes work from Briggs’s most famous titles, including The Snowman (1978), Father Christmas (1973), Fungus the Bogeyman (1977) and When the Wind Blows (1982), plus the autobiographical graphic novel Ethel and Ernest (1998), and looks into the origin and creation of these images and stories. Also on show are his drawings, hand-lettered typography and page designs from his earliest commissions to his 2004 book The Puddleman. 

For the first time following the author´s death in 2022, this exhibition will also offer a deeply personal view of the items and objects that surrounded the author in his Sussex home which was just a mile down the road in the village of Westmeston. This will include Briggs' own writing and drawing desk which he used for over 40 years.

Other items also give a sense of Raymond Briggs' playful response to his own fame. A framed Private Eye magazine edition from 1993 riffing on his most iconic work, a faux blue plaque outlining his commitment to  practical jokes, and a 1997 note from his partner´s granddaughter detailing that “Raymond is not a normal person” (an utterance that would also make it onto Briggs' own gravestone) are among the items on show.