Raymond Briggs – creator of The Snowman and, more importantly, Fungus the Bogeyman – was interviewed in yesterday’s Observer.
Raymond Briggs lives in deepest Sussex, in a small, white house that has more draughts and rickety bookcases than your local underfunded library. I can’t understand it. This is the age of JK Rowling. Shouldn’t he be living in … ‘What?’ he says. ‘A mansion?’ Yes. Surely all those Snowman tea towels must have had some effect on his bank balance. ‘Oh, I don’t know where that money goes. It’s a grey area. Someone buys the rights to do these things and then, after everyone else has taken their share, tuppence ha-penny comes out at the end for me. It’s perfectly good, though; I’m not complaining.’