The Tin-Pot Foreign General and the Old Iron Woman

Product Information

Drawings from fans – especially children’s drawings – inspired by his books were treasured by Raymond and pinned up on the wall of his studio. Raymond Briggs was born in London in 1934, and studied at Wimbledon School of Art and the Slade School of Art, London. His best-known works were published between 1973 and 1984 and also included Father Christmas Goes On Holiday and The Tin-Pot Foreign General And The Old Iron Woman. The Tin-Pot Foreign General and the Old Iron Woman ( ISBN 0241113628) is a 1984 picture book, ostensibly for very young children, written and illustrated by Raymond Briggs and published by Hamish Hamilton. It satirises the Falklands War of 1982. First edition

This article does not cite any sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. At the victory celebrations staged by the Old Iron Woman, “the soldiers with bits of their bodies missing were not invited to take part… in case the sight of them spoiled the rejoicing.”

My Book Notes

His first work was in advertising, but he soon began to win acclaim as a children's book illustrator as well as teaching illustration at Brighton College of Art. He came to public attention when he illustrated a book of nursery rhymes, The Mother Goose Treasury, in 1966, winning a Kate Greenaway medal. Since then he has become one of the most innovative and popular author-illustrators. Born in Wimbledon in 1934, Briggs studied at Wimbledon School of Art and the Slade School of Fine Art before briefly pursuing painting.

At the age of 6, during World War II, Briggs was twice evacuated as one of the millions of children, who along with expectant mothers and the infirm, were sent away from heavily populated areas of England to escape the Nazi air raids. Briggs said he enjoyed what he later described as a happy but uneventful childhood. Despite outward appearances, however, anxieties over the ever-present threat of death and destruction cannot have failed to leave a mark on the impressionable boy (already 10 years’ old when the war ended) and undoubtedly accounts for these themes looming so large in his later work. After becoming a professional illustrator, he worked and taught illustration at Brighton College of Art.

Open Library

Author and illustrator Raymond Briggs, best-known for the 1978 children’s picture book The Snowman, has died aged 88. Briggs depicts a war over “a sad little island” between Argentina’s General Leopoldo Galtieri and Britain’s Margaret Thatcher, which is won by the Old Iron Woman at terrible human cost—“all real men, made of flesh and blood.” In 1966 he won the Kate Greenaway medal for his illustration work on a book of nursery rhymes, The Mother Goose Treasury. Reality there is however in the form of both sides casualities, drowned, burnt to death, shot and cripples portrayed realistically in contrast to the principal characters. Those with a long memory may remember Mrs T was first told of the invasion while attendind an environmental conference in Scotland. Her reaction was that alluded to in the book: "How exciting to have a REAL crisis to deal with....." ln the post victory celebration service, wounded and maimed British troops were kept away as their appear ance would have spoilt the mood of rejoicing. News of Raymond Briggs' death has been met with sadness not just by those who knew him, but by millions around the world - Ian Woods reports

Because of the way Briggs draws Thatcher as kind of like Parker and Stone depict Barbara Streisand in South Park (Mecha Streisand!), robotic with cannons for breasts that open up and spew forth tax money, I wouldn’t say this is at all a book suitable for kids. And if not for that, then the muted, devastating way he shows the casualties of war ought to be carefully presented to youngsters as the drawings are quite blunt. Thanks to observation, his eye for telling detail and his ear for dialogue, Briggs’s characters are always convincing. He was like a good film director, knowing exactly when to place the closeup or the long shot. He knew the right moment for silence, when to exclude speech balloons from a frame. Many typical traits of Briggs’ later work were present, above all a genuinely felt sympathy for working people (Briggs’ father appears once in the story as his milk round and Father Christmas’ delivery route cross paths in the early morning). He has a feel for working class life, with its difficulties and sometimes comic predicaments. Briggs drew the ire of conservatives for breaking social taboos, such as depicting Father Christmas on the lavatory and constantly grumbling about “Bloomin Christmas!”The Snowman has sold more than 5.5 million copies around the world, and Briggs also created beloved children’s books Father Christmas and Fungus The Bogeyman.