Spitting Image, Raymond Briggs,
and the Poet Laureate: 2023 at the University Library
From the wonderlands of Raymond Briggs' imagination to rubber puppets holding politicians to account; Cambridge University Library highlights two beloved and subversive icons of UK culture during its 2023 exhibition and events season.
Raymond Briggs: A Retrospective
‘Below painting comes illustration … below that comes cartoons … then, below the gutter, are the sewers – strip cartoons! Comics! Ugh! The very cesspits of non-culture.’
Raymond Briggs
Inspired by illustrations in newspapers and Punch magazine, Raymond Briggs (1934–2022) applied to art school aged 15.
His interviewer was appalled by his desire to be a cartoonist, however Briggs’ illustrated stories have become enduring works.
Briggs never planned to write for children but his captivating storytelling and subversive humour made many of his books family favourites.
He is best known for The Snowman (1978), which has sold more than 5.5 million copies in 21 countries. However, over a 60-year, award-winning career, Briggs created illustrated books on a wide variety of different themes, from family relationships and grief to social mobility and political satire.
His books have inspired, challenged and entertained readers around the world, and some have been the source of controversy.
Touring from the Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration, this exhibition highlights a selection of the illustrator Raymond Briggs’ most significant works.
It features never-before-seen original illustrations from his studio which reveal his expert draughtsmanship, captivating storytelling and subversive humour.
Raymond Briggs: A Retrospective will be at Cambridge University Library from April 29-August 29, 2023. As with all our exhibitions at the University Library , entry is free and open to all.
‘Raymond Briggs: A Retrospective is a touring exhibition from the Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration.
Spitting Image:
A controversial history
“The only thing I hate more than politicians is puppets.”
Roger Law, co-founder of Spitting Image
Savage, grotesque, hilarious: Spitting Image is an icon of 20th century television. When it first aired in 1984, the programme revolutionised how royalty, politicians and celebrity were discussed and depicted. Loved and hated, it gathered 14 million viewers at its peak - while simultaneously attracting thousands of complaints.
Roger Law and Peter Fluck, Spitting Image’s founders, were political cartoonists by profession. They took the traditions of their craft which had been established in the 18th century and translated them for the screen.
It was an act that scandalised and enthralled in equal measure. Political cartoonists had long known you could push boundaries with pictures. Fluck and Law demonstrated that with puppets, you could say almost anything.
Cambridge University Librarian Dr Jessica Gardner (left) with a Margaret Thatcher puppet from the Spitting Image archive
Cambridge University Librarian Dr Jessica Gardner (left!) with a Margaret Thatcher puppet from the Spitting Image archive
Through the collections of the University Library and other institutions Spitting Image: A Controversial History will explore the show's development and impact. Visitors will see how Peter Fluck and Roger Law’s ‘cartoonist eye’ used puppets to satirise life in the UK and how few in British public life were left unscathed.
The exhibition explores the ongoing relevance of satire, the use of art to speak truth to power, and questions if mocking those who seek to rule really does make a difference.
Cambridge University Library has been home to the Spitting Image archive since 2018, after Roger Law deposited the first 30 boxes of programme archive material with the library.
Among the archive are hundreds of rehearsal and post-production scripts, memorabilia, puppet designs and newspaper cuttings reflecting the controversial nature of the programme. Each script records who wrote each sketch and identifies the puppeteers and voice artists.
Our Spitting Image exhibition runs from September 30 2023-February 17, 2024. Entry is free.
Poet Laureate at
the UL
(fingers crossed)
The UL will welcome Poet Laureate Simon Armitage to Cambridge on February 8, 2023, after COVID-19 derailed plans for an in-person visit from the nation's poet in 2022.
The visit to Cambridge forms part of his Laureate’s Library Tour, a ten-year A-Z tour of the UK’s libraries - large and small.
Despite suffering from COVID-19 last year, Armitage did go ahead with an online event, from the confines of his garden shed.
In 2023, the Poet Laureate will give a reading and be in conversation with Cambridge University Librarian Dr Jessica Gardner, as well as special guest Imtiaz Dharker, a former poet-in-residence at the University Library as part of Carol Ann-Duffy’s Thresholds programme.
The event will take place among the ten million books, maps, manuscripts and other objects in the University Library, which holds one of the most comprehensive collections of British books anywhere in the world, and has, since 1710, been able to request a copy of every published book in the UK and Ireland.
Armitage said: "My experience of reading and writing began in the village library where I grew up, then in the nearby town library, then in libraries at various places of study and teaching. For many people they are an invaluable aspect of everyday life, giving access not just to books but to services, learning, conversation and creative thinking. I want to pay my respects to these unique institutions.
"By planning readings up to a decade in advance I’m being optimistic about the future of our libraries, and challenging those authorities who would consider closing them down."
The Really Popular Book Club
The Really Popular Book Club is the reading group hosted by Cambridge University Libraries. Everyone is invited to join us and our special guests to discuss a really popular book, one that we all know and perhaps or perhaps not love.
Each of our club meetings is completely free to join, and is open to everyone including members of the public and students and staff of the University.
To attend one of our club meetings, simply follow event links on this page. You will then receive an email confirmation containing a joining link.
Confirmed Really Popular Book Clubs for 2023 include:
January 24: Sofia Khan is Not Obliged by Ayisha Malik
February 28: The Hours by Michael Cunningham
March 28: How Beautiful We Were by Imbolo Mbue
April 25: The Perfect Storm by Sebastian Junger
Darwin at New York Public Library
Following a hugely successful run at Cambridge University Library, Darwin in Conversation transfers to New York Public Library for the exhibition Darwin: A Life in Letters, from May 5 to August 5, 2023.
The exhibition reveals how the famed naturalist’s global network of correspondents shaped his ideas around the evolution of life on planet Earth.
It also examines how the great naturalist sought help from a cast of thousands of men, women and even children across the globe as he wrote his foundational works on evolution such as On the Origin of Species.
His correspondence shows Darwin’s tenacious, problem-solving personality, such as arranging a neighbourhood protest to the Post Office for more frequent services so he could send and receive messages in the same day: the 1800s equivalent of today’s instant messaging.
Exhibition curator Dr Alison Pearn, former Associate Director of the Darwin Correspondence Project, said: “Charles Darwin is one of the most famous names in science and through his letters we can all meet the man behind his world-changing ideas.
“The letters mix science and gossip and Darwin counted many correspondents as friends even if he never met them.
"His global network of correspondents included women and men from all walks of life; from working-class pigeon breeders to aristocratic orchid-collectors, from Victorian asylum directors to some of the earliest female scientists and suffragettes. These extraordinary letters are a window into their lives, too.”
"Darwin’s letters are often unexpectedly warm, witty and engaging. Whether encountered as a raw young adventurer, a family man, or a grey-bearded celebrity, Charles Darwin had an infectious curiosity about the world around him."
Dr Alison Pearn
Sandars Lectures 2023:
Cambridge Bookbinding, 1450-1775
Books which were bound in Cambridge can be found all over the world. Cambridge has been a leading centre for binding books (as well as for printing and selling them) for many centuries; how do we recognise them, and what can they tell us?
David Pearson, Sandars Lecturer for 2023
David Pearson, Sandars Lecturer for 2023
This year's Sandars Lectures by David Pearson will focus on a project which aims for the first time to produce a comprehensive overview of Cambridge binding work through the early modern period.
David Pearson retired in 2017 as Director of Culture, Heritage & Libraries for the City of London Corporation, after a long career in managing libraries and collections in London and elsewhere.
He is a Senior Fellow of the Institute of English Studies at the University of London, was Lyell Reader in Bibliography at Oxford 2017-18, and teaches regularly on the Rare Book Schools in London and Virginia.
His books include Provenance Research in Book History (new edition, 2019), English Bookbinding Styles 1450-1800 (2005), Book Ownership in Stuart England (2021), and Speaking Volumes: Books with Histories (2022); in 2020 he launched the Book Owners Online database.
The Sandars Lectures will take place on November 21, 22 and 23, 2023.
Friends of the Library
The Friends of Cambridge University Library are an important part of the Library community, supporting our exhibitions, research projects, crucial conservation activities, and acquisitions of rare books, manuscripts and historical objects.
The Friends programme of events includes talks, tours and special events at the University Library.
Highlights for 2023 include 'Raymond Briggs and the New Picturebook Makers', a talk from Professor Martin Salisbury (author, illustrator, and Director for the Centre for Children's Book Studies), and a tour of the Conservation Studio, focusing on the work undertaken to preserve the Spitting Image archive.
Our annual Friends Summer Party will be held on June 22, with a show and tell from the curators and conservators working on the Curious Cures project and a reception in the Courtyard.
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