Raymond Briggs' work was greatly influenced by his relationship with his parents, and in Ethel and Ernest (1998) he follows their lives - and his own with them (that is him in the window) - over forty years. It is delightful, funny, deeply moving and often heartbreaking; it covers social mobility, nostalgia, grief, marriage and family dynamics. As Briggs said,"Life is sad, really, but there's also love, which makes life worth living."