The Tin-Pot Foreign General and the Old Iron Woman

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His best-known works were published between 1973 and 1984 and also included Father Christmas Goes On Holiday and The Tin-Pot Foreign General And The Old Iron Woman. 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.

Many typical traits of Briggs’ later work were present, above all a genuinely felt sympathy for working people (Briggs’ father appears once in the story as his milk round and Father Christmas’ delivery route cross paths in the early morning). He has a feel for working class life, with its difficulties and sometimes comic predicaments. Briggs drew the ire of conservatives for breaking social taboos, such as depicting Father Christmas on the lavatory and constantly grumbling about “Bloomin Christmas!” 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) The Tin-Pot Foreign General and the Old Iron Woman (ISBN 0241113628) is a 1984 picture book, ostensibly for very young children, written and illustrated by Raymond Briggs and published by Hamish Hamilton. It satirises the Falklands War of 1982. Francesca Dow, managing director of children’s at Penguin Random House said: “I am very proud that Puffin has been the home of Raymond’s children’s books for so many years. Author and illustrator Raymond Briggs, best-known for the 1978 children’s picture book The Snowman, has died aged 88.Born in Wimbledon in 1934, Briggs studied at Wimbledon School of Art and the Slade School of Fine Art before briefly pursuing painting. Raymond Briggs was born in London in 1934, and studied at Wimbledon School of Art and the Slade School of Art, London. 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’. An animated version of The Snowman made for Channel 4 in 1982 has become a festive staple and has been shown every Christmas since.

A similarly grumpy but essentially warm-hearted character was Fungus the Bogeyman (1977), who lived among a breed of underground creatures who visit the surface to make things go “bump in the night”. Drawings from fans – especially children’s drawings – inspired by his books were treasured by Raymond and pinned up on the wall of his studio.The book mentions several ways in which soldiers (who were "all real men, made of flesh and blood ... not made of Tin Pots or Iron") were killed or maimed; the pictures accompanying these parts of the text are monochrome pencil sketches, as opposed to the full-colour caricatures in the rest of the book. Following the victory by the soldiers of the Old Iron Woman, there are various celebrations, to which the maimed are not invited in case their appearance spoils the fun.