Ethel & Ernest

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Utterly original, deeply moving and very funny, Ethel & Ernest tells the story of Raymond Briggs' parents' marriage, lady's maid Ethel and milkman Ernest, from their first chance encounter in 1928, through the birth of their son Raymond in 1934, to their deaths, within months of each other, in 1971. As with all Briggs’s subsequent titles, the book is full of autobiographical elements and references. His own childhood home and Loch Fyne holidays appear regularly and he himself pops up in the follow-up, Father Christmas Goes on Holiday (1975). Ethel and Ernest follows the lives of Raymond Briggs' parents throughout the decades, with each section divided into 10 year chunks. The story opens when they first meet, Ethel is a ladies maid and spots Ernest on his bike; he looks up and notices her at the window, and the rest, they say, is history. Ethel leaves her job and they set up home together. 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." Gravett, Paul “‘Where Is the Use of a Book Without Pictures or Conversations?’ Coming to Terms with the Graphic Novel in Europe.” Third Text 21, no. 5 (September, 2007): 617-625.

Briggs admits it was a difficult book to write, particularly the parts that depicted the deaths of his parents in hospital.From the socially stratified 1920s to the moon landing of 1969, the film depicts, through Ethel and Ernest's eyes, the most defining moments of the 20th century - the darkness of the Great Depression, the build-up to World War II, the trials of the war years, the euphoria of VE Day and the emergence of a generation from postwar austerity to the cultural enlightenment of the 1960s. Bij het einde pinkte ik (opnieuw) een traan. Zo'n leven lang samen en alles wat daarbij aan liefde, leed en geschiedenis passeert maakt het verhaal ook wat melancholisch, maar op een fijne manier. Met subtiele humor en oh zo liefdevol getekend. Briggs attended the local Rutlish school and went on to study at Wimbledon School (now College) of Art, the Central School of Arts and Crafts (now Central Saint Martins) and, after a two-year break for national service, the Slade. His father, a milkman, had tried to dissuade his son from studying at art school, fearing that it would not equip him for stable employment.

His long-time editor, Julia MacRae, felt overwhelmed with emotion when Briggs first showed her the work. Raymond Briggs’s graphic-novel tribute to his parents Ethel and Ernest, and their long, happy marriage has been lovingly turned into a feature animation that exactly reproduces the detail and the simplicity of his hand-drawn style. It is gentle and charming, with an unbearably moving ending, though I confess I’m not sure what to think about its essentially placid quality. Brenda Blethyn and Jim Broadbent are the voices: a little old for the characters in their 1920s youth, but perhaps people looked and behaved a bit older in those days. Lo stile di Raymond Briggs non rientra nei miei preferiti, ma devo dire che più andavo avanti con la storia, più questi disegni tondi e pieni con questi colori pacati mi sembravano adatti, anzi, perfetti, per la storia autobiografica raccontata dall’autore. The story takes place in London, England from the 1920s through 1971. We meet Ethel who is a maid who one day she sees a man from the window who is riding a bike. He waves at her and she blushes that a man is paying attention to her. He tells her that his name is Ernest and then asks her out to go watch a movie. After that encounter they become a couple and soon enough they get married. She quits her job and becomes a house wife while Ernest works as a milkman. We enter the 1930s and the times are rough during these period because of high unemployment, recuperating from WWI, and economic depression. As various narrative texts came his way, he realised that not all of them were of the highest quality, and took to writing himself. In 1961 he wrote and illustrated two books, Midnight Adventure and The Strange House, for the publishers Hamish Hamilton, with whom he would have a lasting working relationship.

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and more carefree time. He has a simplistic view of the world and trusting attitude toward authority. His life revolves around his wife, Hilda, and trips by bus to the public library or the shops. Nevertheless, the children of his long-term partner, Liz Benjamin, provided inspiration and source material for other projects, notably The Puddleman (2004), which grew from a remark made by one of the young children on passing a puddle while the family were out walking in the countryside. Ethel & Ernest is a tribute by author Raymond Briggs to his working class parents. Both meet in 1928, Ethel who is older, is a maid to a wealthy family. Ernest, a milkman who is 5 years her junior waves at her every day and then one day brings her flowers and asks her out. Briggs’s body of work has allowed him to occupy an unusual position in British publishing in that he is widely regarded as a children’s author, even though all his most famous work is in a comic format. Even the most famous of British comic artists tend to be regarded as working in a lesser medium, where they are marginalized, but Briggs has escaped this entirely, and his work is often categorized with the more prestigious label of “picture books.” This has meant that works such as When the Wind Blows tend to be reviewed in mainstream newspapers and are taken seriously by the British media. Briggs has received critical praise for both his children’s books and his adult works such as The Tin-Pot Foreign General and the Old Iron Woman (1984), a satire on the Falklands War.

After the war, Ernest cheers on the creation of the welfare state but ongoing rationing places a strain. As Raymond gets older, he does his bit in National Service and later goes to art school and insists on having long hair. 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. There is so much humor and tenderness in this book. The love Ethel and Ernest have for each other is epic and perhaps even more so given that Briggs is focusing on the mundane, every-day stuff of life (even during wartime).We had a chat about the style of Ethel and Ernest. I said it would be hand drawn animation but there would be 3D elements in it for vehicles, plances, and the mangle that Ethel uses for washing. We showed him some of the artwork for the film. He stopped at a picture of the mangle in the scullery and recalled how he and his brother used to try and feed old 78rpm records through the rollers to see if they could get them through without breaking. He laughed and added, “we couldn’t!”. Ethel & Ernest tells the story of Raymond Briggs' parents, from 1928 to their deaths in the 70s - spanning a period of great social change for the country. Perhaps dispassionate is the wrong word. Let's just say it's honest. That's what makes the greatest impact. Briggs says: "[The couple are] somewhat like my parents but I like to think my parents weren't quite as dim as they are. But they have to be dim to follow Protect and Survive." The book was adapted into the feature-length hand-drawn animated film Ethel & Ernest, voiced by Brenda Blethyn, Jim Broadbent and others. It was premiered at the London Film Festival on 15 October 2016, had a cinema release starting on 28 October 2016, and was broadcast on BBC television on BBC One at 7:30pm on 28 December 2016. [2]

Copies of When the Wind Blows were sent by its British publishers to all members of the British parliament, where it received predictable praise or condemnation from those on either side of the political divide. The book was discussed in Parliament, and some of the more favorable comments it received from members of Parliament were included in later editions. Films Poignant, funny, and utterly original, Ethel & Ernest is Raymond Briggs’s loving depiction of his parents’ lives from their chance first encounter in the 1920s until their deaths in the 1970s. I am proud to be a member of the team that translated Raymond Briggs’ profound book into an elegant and matchless film,” says Carl Davis. “It is a superb achievement.” The characteristic that the journalist John Walsh described in a 2012 interview as a very English “strenuous curmudgeonliness” had become in later years a stereotype that Briggs embraced, exemplified by his column in the Oldie, Notes from the Sofa, collected in book form in 2015, where he would rail against sundry incomprehensible aspects of modern life.

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It is clear that this work was aimed at adults, unlike Briggs’s earlier books, which, although they tended to have a cynical edge, were aimed mainly at children. Father Christmas features a grumpy titular hero, Fungus the Bogeyman has a most disgusting central character, and even his popular The Snowman has a downbeat ending. Yet none of these stories approached the bleakness of When the Wind Blows. The book shows that some change is necessary, that all things pass, while exposing a continuity that unites us all. We can relate to people simply trying to get through life with love and a gentle pragmatism. One day, it will be our turn to be Ethels and Ernests, and that message is beautiful and bittersweet. This was such a short and sweet book and I enjoyed every aspect of it from the storyline, the illustrations and how grateful we are as human beings when parents try and make the life of their children better than what they went through. Their son became a famous illustrator and author and never had to live below poverty level or be a working class. It was sad how they both died and I am glad that Raymond chose to honor them in his book. The illustrations were beautiful and reminiscent of Briggs' other masterpiece, The Snowman, and the ending was very, very poignant.