‘Below painting comes illustration … below that comes cartoons … then, below the gutter, are the sewers – strip cartoons! Comics! Ugh! The very cesspits of non-culture.’ - Raymond Briggs

Professor Martin Salisbury explores the legacy of Raymond Briggs (1934-2022), the beloved author-illustrator of The Snowman (1978), Ethel and Ernest (1998) and Fungus the Bogeyman (1977), and his influence on todays visual storytellers. The talk will be followed by a Q&A and a glass of wine in the exhibition Raymond Briggs: A Retrospective.

Professor Martin Salisbury is an author, illustrator, and Director of the Centre for Children’s Book Studies at the Cambridge School of Art. After studying at Maidstone College of Art in the 1970s, Martin worked for many years as a freelance illustrator, producing illustrations for leading UK publishers, focusing particularly on fiction and non-fiction for older children. He taught as a part-time visiting tutor at Cambridge School of Art for several years before accepting a permanent fractional post, then going on to take over leadership of our BA (Hons) Illustration programme. In 2001 he designed the MA Children’s Book Illustration course, which has since become a world-leading programme. He has previously chaired the International Jury at the Bologna Children's Book Fair, and been a member of the jury at the Global Illustration Awards in China. His books include Drawing for Illustration (2022), The Illustrated Dust Jacket: 1920-1970 (2017), One Hundred Great Children's Picturebooks (2015) and Children's Picturebooks: The Art of Visual Storytelling (2012). Martin’s books have been translated into at least ten languages and reprinted numerous times.

This talk is hosted by the Friends of Cambridge University Library but everyone is welcome. Friends fund some of the most crucial activities in the library - securing new acquisitions, conserving and digitising our collections, and supporting our public programmes. Find out more and join here.