It is a sincere and affectionate gift to an ordinary couple and the extraordinary times in which they live;
This is a family photo album drawn with colored pencils, recording a period of water-like time and a piece of warmth left to the world that will never disappear.
The famous British cartoonist Raymond Briggs affectionately depicts the lifelong love of his parents, which is "London Family" - the memory of the life of an ordinary British family for decades, about time, about you and me, about the meaning of love and life.
Synopsis
"London Family" is based on raymond Briggs' real-life experience, which is deeply moving but also funny. The protagonists of the story are Raymond Briggs's parents, the maid's maid, Ethel, and the milkman Ernest, whose story begins with love at first sight in 1928, ushers in the birth of their son Raymond in 1934, and ends with their deaths in 1971.
In his own unique comic strip, Briggs tells the story of Ijssel and Ernest: they lived through major historical moments of the twentieth century: the bleak future of the Great Depression, the tensions before World War II, the years of war, the jubilant Victory Day in Europe, the post-war fiscal austerity, and the emergence of new cultural trends in the sixties.
Love is always what it is
In the work, the color of the home has always been bright, and there are only three scenes in which there are three dark colors, namely when the couple is worried about the future of their son, when the clouds are overcast in wartime, and when the hostess dies.
But the flowers in this home have never stopped, whether it is the first date of the two to watch a movie, the wife in the delivery room, the living room rebuilt after the war, the dinner table where the two drink tea and read the newspaper every day, or the bedside table in the hospital room — it may be regarded as a love vow they guard together, just like the bouquet of flowers that Ernest gave to Ethir on the first date of the two, which is timeless.
The most repetitive images in the book are the backs of the couple, or embracing each other affectionately, or shoulder to shoulder, watching the scenes in front of them constantly switching: new houses, gardens, lakes, beaches, new houses destroyed, post-war celebrations... The joys and sorrows of the small citizens, the sorrows and joys of the big times, their love has been unswerving through the vicissitudes of the sea, until death will separate them forever.
A silent confession to time
Decades later, under the canopy of pear trees, Raymond walked with his wife, just as his parents did.
Detail and coincidence alone are not enough to be art, nor can the sense of form and ritual of accidental design give us strength. Only practical affection and love can give us endless courage and give people the strength to sing every day.
Perhaps, this is what life is: we are like ants in the world, like grains of sand in history, and we and our lovers are the protagonists of time.