The collection was donated following Briggs’ death in 2022More than a thousand books from Raymond Briggs’ personal library have gone on sale at Oxfam’s Hove bookshop and online. One book, Britain’s Wartime Milkmen, nods to Briggs’ father Ernest, whose life inspired Ethel & Ernest. “You begin to see connections between the books Raymond Briggs created and the books and artists he chose to have around him. Briggs was also known for Fungus The Bogeyman, When The Wind Blows and Ethel & Ernest (Anthony Devlin/PA)“It is serious, funny, ordinary and sometimes rather dark – which feels very familiar to anyone who knows Raymond Briggs’ work. Briggs was married to Jean Taprell Clarke until her death from leukaemia in 1973.