Raymond Briggs's final book, which faces death 'head-on', due this year

Collection of short pieces, which has been in the works for more than a decade, takes stock of The Snowman author’s life

Raymond Briggs is one of the UK’s most beloved children’s authors, the creator of characters from The Snowman to Fungus the Bogeyman. But in his forthcoming book Time for Lights Out, a “head-on” confrontation with old age and death, he describes himself as nothing more than a “long-haired, artsy-fartsy type” who “did pictures for kiddy books / Or some such tripe”.

The collection of short pieces, which has been in the works for more than a decade, will be published in November by Jonathan Cape, it was announced on Wednesday. Illustrated with Briggs’s pencil drawings, Time for Lights Out starts from the 85-year-old’s school days and his time as an evacuee during the second world war, touching on his memories of his parents and his childhood home.

Related: Raymond Briggs: ‘There could be another world war. Terrifying, isn’t it?’

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