He contends: "There's never been a book like it. It's a perfect book because it's so expressive, it's the sort of book that moves you to tears because it's so intense but so simple, in the same Raymond way. It has deadpan, offbeat humour, but he is depicting those two people he loved so dearly. It's one of the most moving books I've ever read." In Ethel & Ernest vertelt Raymond Briggs het verhaal van het huwelijk van zijn ouders. Vanaf hun eerste toevallige ontmoeting in 1928, toen Ethel nog een dienstmeisje en Ernest melkboer was. Ze trouwden, kregen hun zoon Raymond in 1934, tot hun dood, binnen enkele maanden na elkaar, in 1971. But friends knew another side to Briggs – loyal and playful, an inveterate practical joker. Lord once made the mistake of confessing to a dislike of dogs in the presence of Briggs, thereby immediately committing himself to becoming the recipient of all manner of canine-related gifts on subsequent birthdays and Christmases. Like so many of his characters, Briggs’s grumpiness never quite managed to conceal an underlying warmth and kindness. In 2017 he was appointed CBE. Met deze strip sloot ik de cyclus van de vier graphic novels/strips, die autobiografisch of sterk autobiografische elementen bevatten, af: The Snowman, Gentleman Jim, When the Wind Blows en deze. Such prejudices, still not entirely eradicated today, were commonplace at art schools of the time. Although he bemoaned his tutors’ failure to recognise a “natural illustrator”, the formal training that he received imbued in Briggs a strong sense of structure and of the importance of good draughtsmanship. These equipped him well in book illustration, although he left the Slade with what he saw as a poor sense of colour and a dislike of paint. When he eventually arrived at the film version of The Snowman, he expressed pleasure at how it so faithfully and painstakingly replicated his coloured-pencil technique, despite the massively labour-intensive approach that this necessitated.

A scene from Ethel and Ernest, the 2016 film of Raymond Briggs’s book devoted to the story of his parents. Photograph: Vertigo FilmsEl ilustrador Raymond Briggs hace un homenaje gráfico a la relación de sus padres y cuenta la historia del matrimonio desde que se conocen hasta el fallecimiento de ambos. Y, mientras tanto, sucede el siglo XX. Ethel y Ernest es un retrato personal, sí, pero también lo es de una clase social: la de los ingleses de clase trabajadora que experimentaron las penurias de dos guerras mundiales y sus consecuencias. Entre tazas de té nos narran los avances de la sociedad y, con un humor muy británico, ironizan sobre la modernidad, las revoluciones sociales y los inventos que fueron llegando a los hogares para hacer las vidas más fáciles. En esta historia también se habla mucho sobre la paternidad: sobre volcar las ilusiones en los hijos y que después sus sueños sean distintos a lo que se proyectó para ellos, sobre crecer posicionándose en contra de todo lo que se mamó. As well as working on a very personal and biographical level, 'Ethel and Ernest' provides a fascinating version of British history through the lens of Briggs' parents lives.

The illustrations were beautiful and reminiscent of Briggs' other masterpiece, The Snowman, and the ending was very, very poignant. Ingrams says: "Ethel & Ernest is supposed to be a book about his parents. But it's really more of an autobiography of himself. He is the central character in it. You get the importance that he attaches to the world he was brought up in, the world of his parents, is a completely different world to the one people live in now."From 1920 to deaths in the 70's...Ethel & Ernest steal your heat!!!! The illustrations are deeply moving of love - War - parenthood - and old age. He was born in Wimbledon, south-west London, to Ethel (nee Bowyer) and Ernest Briggs. Their first meeting is beautifully described in the wordless opening sequence of the book devoted to their story. Ethel, a young parlour maid in a Belgravia house, had been innocently shaking out her duster from an upper window as Ernest passed by on his bicycle and confidently returned what he took to be a friendly wave. But perhaps the most powerful motivation was a hatred of injustice by authority toward the powerless and naively respectful common man. The latter could be seen most directly in When the Wind Blows (1982), Briggs’s examination of an elderly couple’s attempts to follow government guidelines as nuclear war breaks out; and The Tin-Pot General and the Old Iron Woman (1984), a thinly disguised General Leopoldo Galtieri and Margaret Thatcher. Ethel e Ernest si conoscono per caso. Lei è una governante, lui un lattaio. Si innamorano e si sposano. Costruiscono la loro famiglia in una casa in cui hanno vissuto insieme per tutta una vita. Park says: "They only had a clip ready and they showed it as a treat at the London Film Festival. I remember hearing about it and I was so thrilled to see it. For me it was like a dream come true - I was just so hoping it would reflect his original comic book artwork and it did. It was a real groundbreaker."