It’s great and horrible fun for adults and kids alike – with brilliant illustrations throughout as you’d expect. The topic was inspired after Briggs watched a Panorama documentary on nuclear contingency planning, and the dense format of the page was inspired by a Swiss publisher's miniature version of Father Christmas. Fungus the Bogeyman by Raymond Briggs is fantastic and intriguing read for children aged between seven and eleven.

The book is set out into panels and large blocks of text, with Briggs' signature style of illustration.Over a period of decades, a number of attempts were made to make a film from the book, which was difficult given its lack of an actual plot. This book is in good condition with some rubbing to the corners and scratches to the laminate on the front and back cover. So it's a wonderful, hilarious and elaborate pop-up book full of Slime and Muck, and if it could smell would really stink!

Amongst the information given about their lifestyle there is also a more typical storyline where Fungus wakes up, washes (in slime) and cycles to work where he ponders his role in society and the purpose of his existence! As a children’s book today, I would not recommend it: there are many references to British culture in the 70s that simply would not be understood; the vocabulary used is quite advanced (at times fantastical) and thus I would not even be sure at what age group this book should be aimed; and as the book is so dated, it feels sexist and racist by today’s standards. Making things go bump in the night can be satisfying in its way, and a pint of slime goes down nicely after work. When I started reading books by this author, I was expecting something more fanciful like The Snowman, but found titles much closer in tone and themes to The Man. It reads almost like a comic book with incredibly detailed illustrations in individual boxes with speech bubbles or text.

Briggs' character Fungus the Bogeyman, first featured in his children's work of the same name, published in 1977. Andrew Male, appearing on the Backlisted Podcast, described Fungus the Bogeyman as "the children's [version of Burton's] Anatomy of Melancholy" and this the most apt and accurate description I have ever come across. And it is was a revelation to discover that even the sublimely happy Fungus was not above an attack of existential angst . A charming first edition of this delightful pop up book, by much loved author of The Snowman, Raymond Briggs.