Rating: 
Summary: Raymond's Parents
Review: A labour of love. Delicately paced, the artist/author reveals the story of a little English maid who marries a milkman, sets up home and tries to bring up a child in the midst of British history as it affects the common man on the street. I absolutely love the portrayal of Ethel and Ernest by their son, the author: affectionate, yet honestly observant and unsentimental. Their characters come through so clearly. For a son to write something like this must have taken many tears, laughing rememberances and open-mouthed moments of imagination. The historical and social detail is truly amazing - the War (complete with Churchill's speech), VE Day, the advent of television, the Labour/Tory division (even between man and wife), the man on the moon - and it never slows down the story, it just illuminates the relationship between this man and wife, full of love and the tiny conflicts of married life. I cried at so many parts. This is so touching, all the more that it is about two extraordinary "ordinary" people.
Rating:
Summary: Raymond's Parents
Review: A labour of love. Delicately paced, the artist/author reveals the story of a little English maid who marries a milkman, sets up home and tries to bring up a child in the midst of British history as it affects the common man on the street. I absolutely love the portrayal of Ethel and Ernest by their son, the author: affectionate, yet honestly observant and unsentimental. Their characters come through so clearly. For a son to write something like this must have taken many tears, laughing rememberances and open-mouthed moments of imagination. The historical and social detail is truly amazing - the War (complete with Churchill's speech), VE Day, the advent of television, the Labour/Tory division (even between man and wife), the man on the moon - and it never slows down the story, it just illuminates the relationship between this man and wife, full of love and the tiny conflicts of married life. I cried at so many parts. This is so touching, all the more that it is about two extraordinary "ordinary" people.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful!
Review: A little treasure! There's not much more a person can say about a little book like this. It's worth buying and having in your possession-read it on occasion to realize what life is all about.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful!
Review: A little treasure! There's not much more a person can say about a little book like this. It's worth buying and having in your possession-read it on occasion to realize what life is all about.
Rating:
Summary: Hello ... can I have my copy back ...?
Review: Actually, its a pleasure knowing that since I have bought this illustrated book, it has been passed on to friends of friends of friends! I havn't even seen it for a month. No one can resist this book, which is an affectionate yet honest look by the author/illustrator Raymond Briggs, who tells the story of the courtship and life of his mother Ethel and father Ernest, set squarely in a historical period of Britian. The historical detail is amazing - from the comic antagonism of the political attitudes displayed by his mother and father, to the harsh reality of facing World War II on families. But the story is told with such humour and insight, and with such a powerful undercurrent of sadness and love, that it is uplifting rather than depressing.I noticed another reviewer said this book was hard to catergorise - and that is so. It is not a story with a particular point - the point, if any, is about life.
Rating:
Summary: Hello ... can I have my copy back ...?
Review: Actually, its a pleasure knowing that since I have bought this illustrated book, it has been passed on to friends of friends of friends! I havn't even seen it for a month. No one can resist this book, which is an affectionate yet honest look by the author/illustrator Raymond Briggs, who tells the story of the courtship and life of his mother Ethel and father Ernest, set squarely in a historical period of Britian. The historical detail is amazing - from the comic antagonism of the political attitudes displayed by his mother and father, to the harsh reality of facing World War II on families. But the story is told with such humour and insight, and with such a powerful undercurrent of sadness and love, that it is uplifting rather than depressing. I noticed another reviewer said this book was hard to catergorise - and that is so. It is not a story with a particular point - the point, if any, is about life.
Rating:
Summary: Glorious
Review: An absolutely wonderful memoir, and I use the word memoir deliberately as this is not simply or solely a story told in images, Briggs shows as much in each picture as any prose writer could in several paragraphs of type. This book made me laugh and cry. I gave a copy to my parents and another to a teenage friend, I can't imagine anyone not enjoying Ethel and Ernest's story. A must have.
Rating: 
Summary: A book to warm the cockles of the heart.
Review: Brigg's presents a sort of melancholy portrait of his parent's life in England from the 20'3/30's through the early 70's. He does a great job showing what a classist society England was (is?) and really captured the outlook and attitudes of the working class. His images and use of the vernacular are make this book a winner. It very much reminded me of the Maus books (cartoon depicting the Holocaust using the device of mice and cats). I recommended this book, but probably for those who have some context (e.g. English relatives, knowledge of English social history). The first half of the book is more inspired, speaking to the optimism of his parents in making their home and facing WWII. The second half has a somewhat uncomfortably bitter feeling, as the parents age and become frustrated with their son's "moderness" and the decline of British social state.
Rating: 
Summary: Evocative look back at what England was like
Review: Brigg's presents a sort of melancholy portrait of his parent's life in England from the 20'3/30's through the early 70's. He does a great job showing what a classist society England was (is?) and really captured the outlook and attitudes of the working class. His images and use of the vernacular are make this book a winner. It very much reminded me of the Maus books (cartoon depicting the Holocaust using the device of mice and cats). I recommended this book, but probably for those who have some context (e.g. English relatives, knowledge of English social history). The first half of the book is more inspired, speaking to the optimism of his parents in making their home and facing WWII. The second half has a somewhat uncomfortably bitter feeling, as the parents age and become frustrated with their son's "moderness" and the decline of British social state.
Rating:
Summary: An involving, intimate portrait of British life.
Review: Briggs' depiction of his parents' lives from their meeting in the 1920s to their deaths in the 1970s takes the form of a graphic novel with color cartoon panel sets on each page. Ethel & Ernest provides an involving social history of England during the times, as well as an intimate portrait of a British couple's life. Hard to categorize but involving.
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