‘Not a parable about death’: Raymond Briggs’s notes set record straight for The Snowman

Remarks scribbled in a Finnish copy of the much-loved book, to be featured in an exhibition on the author, reveal how the story was misunderstood

It is Raymond Briggs’s most loved book, notching up sales of 5.5m, while the TV adaptation is a hardy perennial in the Christmas schedules. However, the discovery of a Finnish edition of The Snowman with notes scribbled in the margin by its author decades after publication reveal that parts of the story have been misinterpreted.

It has frequently been assumed that the melting and disappearance of the snowman was symbolic of the loss of Briggs’s parents and wife in the 1970s. Not the case, according to the author’s remarks.