Notes From the Sofa

First book in ten years by the much-loved author of The Snowman, Father Christmas, and Ethel & Ernest.
     From the beloved and best-selling author of The Snowman comes his first book in ten years: a charming and beautifully illustrated work for adults. In Notes from the Sofa, Raymond Briggs traces the course of his life in a series of wonderfully observed vignettes that take him from the awkwardness and embarrassment of growing up to the vicissitudes and frustrations of growing old. 
     This collection features the best pieces from Briggs' regular column -- 'Notes from the Sofa' -- in The Oldie, Richard Ingrams' humorous monthly magazine. Amusing and touching by turn, these include his unwavering dedication to the arts and why he takes pleasure in being labelled a 'creative sociopath'; amusing anecdotes, such as how he became an accidental Winnie the Pooh tour guide to Japanese tourists; and general musings on life, including his confusion as a young child as to exactly where babies come from. 
     This is Briggs like you've never read him before, with a newfound freedom to write and draw about whatever he wants, without the restrictions of children's books and sometimes without the happy endings.

RAYMOND BRIGGS was born in London in 1934 and studied at the Wimbledon School of Art and the Slade School of Art, working first in advertising before moving into the wonderful world of children's book illustration. He is the beloved children's book author-illustrator of the hugely successful Father Christmas (1973), Father Christmas Goes on Holiday (1975), Fungus the Bogeyman (1977), The Snowman (1978), When the Wind Blows (1982), and The Tin-Pot Foreign General and the Old Iron Woman (1984). These books have been translated into many languages and adapted into films, plays and animated TV shows. His graphic novel Ethel & Ernest (1998) -- the story of how his father, a milkman, met his mother, a lady's maid, and the forty-one years they spent together -- is currently in production to be become a feature film.