This winter, the family-favourite tale of a boy and a snowman who comes to life is back to enchant audiences for its 26th year. Together they fly through the night sky on a breathtaking and magical journey, until the sun comes up and it's time to go home.

James shows the snowman around his house, playing with appliances, toys and other bric-a-brac, all while keeping quiet enough not to wake James' parents. However, he noted that "in the US programmes were sponsored, and to be sponsored you needed a big name". Other books he has written and illustrated himself include Fungus the Bogeyman (1977) , Unlucky Wally (1987) and The Bear (1994).

So when the snow falls and Billy starts to build a Snowman, he knows exactly what to do - he builds a Snowdog too! If you are looking for more snowman or winterideas, activities, and printablesto do at home or in the classroom make sure to check out our other winter lessons. The final page shows an already-maturing Ug, painting animals on the cave wall, and asking ‘Things WILL get better … won’t they? There were thirty one "Highly Commended" runners up in twenty nine years from 1974 to 2002, including Briggs alone in 1978.

This brand-new edition of the timelesstale features artwork from the original and beloved animated film in better, sharper, quality than ever before, and freshly written text.

Similarly, although the boy in the book is unnamed, in the film he is named "James" on his present tag, added by animator Joanna Harrison as it was the name of her boyfriend (later her husband). Seeing a picture of the arctic on a packet in the freezer, the snowman is agitated and takes the boy in hand, running through the garden until they take flight.

Billy and his mum have moved into a new house just before Christmas, but Billy isn't very full of festive cheer, as his beloved old dog has passed away. Blake suggested that the film should not feature dialogue, but instead a through-composed orchestral soundtrack. The Snowman is a wordless children's picture book by Raymond Briggs, first published in 1978 by Hamish Hamilton in the United Kingdom, and published by Random House in the United States in November of the same year. He disputed the idea that the book is a Christmas book, noting that it was only the animated adaptation that introduces this element.Blake's soundtrack for The Snowman is often performed as a standalone concert work, often accompanying a projection of the film or sometimes with a narrator (the version for narrator was first performed by Bernard Cribbins in Summer 1983). It begins in 1928, with two wordless pages, as a lady’s maid unwittingly waves a duster at a passing cheery cyclist, and their married life together goes on to register social changes, world events and technological progress up to the start of the 1970s. He and the boy play with appliances, toys and other bric-a-brac in the house, all while keeping quiet enough not to wake his parents. Anyone requiring a detailed and lavishly illustrated account of Briggs’ development as an artist and social satirist need look no further than Nicolette Jones’ excellent study Blooming Books (Cape, 2003).

All rare and signed Raymond Briggs autographs are 100% authentic and include an original letter of authenticity.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. Briggs’ true originality as an author-illustrator began with gently debunking works such as Jim and the Beanstalk (1970), in which the giant is an avuncular figure helped by false teeth, spectacles and a wig, and his far from jolly Father Christmas (1973). It has been re-released several times by Palace and later PolyGram Video, and Universal Studios Home Entertainment UK after Palace went out of business. Children will easily understand the pictures and can create their own details using their imaginations!