Ethel and Ernest

The graphic novel Ethel and Ernest is Raymond Briggs' biography of his parents. It begins when a ladies' maid and a milkman meet, fall in love and decide to get married. (One of the funniest moments in the book is the reaction of Ethel's employer, a stern elderly woman who possesses all the hauteur of Queen Victoria.) As the decades pass the couple witness all the upheavals the twentieth century brings to the life of working class people in Britain. The flotsam and jetsam the tides of history deposit on the doorstep of their comfortable suburban home are met with excitement, confusion, anxiety or bemusement — but always with the knowledge that no matter how much life may change, Ethel and Ernest will face it together. The book contains some very sad moments, as is inevitable in the depiction of a marriage, but also moments of great humour and affection. In a way it's like a piece of science fiction that actually happened: the protagonists are born in the Edwardian age and end up living in the time of televised moon landings. Time travel is always really weird even if it only happens at the rate of one day per day.