Ethel and Ernest by Raymond Briggs (of The Snowman fame) was published in 1998, it’s the biography of his parents’ lives and relationship and it’s a delight. At just 102 pages of mainly illustrations I read through it very quickly and then turned back to the beginning again to savour his charming and so detailed illustrations.
Ethel was working in service for two snooty looking women when she fell for Ernest who often waved to her as he cycled past her employers’ home. Ernest is a milkman and the two of them decide to get married and buy a home of their own. The illustrations show them looking around the empty house as Ethel wonders if they can afford it, and bit by bit you can see them gathering furniture and ‘stuff’ to make their quite large nest. Sadly after Ethel has a tough time giving birth to Raymond they are told to have no more children. Ernest says, but we wanted a proper family! It wasn’t to be.
Apart from all the landmarks in a couple’s life such as Ethel being thrilled to have a gas copper for washing the clothes in, there are also all the stand out moments such as the BBC announcing that we were at war in 1939. Then all the preparations involved in that, the gas mask, building an Anderson shelter in the garden, a Morrison’s shelter in the living-room, making blackout shutters and Raymond being evacuated to safety. Just as well as their home is badly damaged in a bomb blast.
This book starts in 1930 and ends in 1971 as Ethel and Ernest both die in that year. Obviously Raymond’s life appears in the book too. It’s a real love letter to both of his parents in their memory. They come across as being a lovely couple, so human and quite different from each other in outlook, with Ethel beinng a bit of a snob, as befits an ex ‘ladies maid’. Ernest is all for the working man.
I’m just amazed that in 1930 a milkman could afford to buy a large terraced Edwardian house with living-room, dining-room, four bedrooms, scullery, kitchen AND bathroom. They lived in that house all their 41 years together. Apparently this book has been made into an animated film, that seems so fitting.