There are just a few weeks left to see the private work of one of the UK's most influential graphic novelists and picture book makers on display in the region.

Visitors to the Bowes Museum in Barnard Castle have until 5pm on February 26 to experience an insight into the work of author and illustrator Raymond Briggs, through his drawings, hand-lettered typography and page designs from his earliest commissions, to his 2004 picture book The Puddleman.

These works are on show for the first time in the region, in Raymond Briggs: A Retrospective.

Briggs (1934-2022) is best-known for the silent picturebook The Snowman (1978). But over a 60-year career, he created illustrated books on themes from family relationships and grief to social mobility and political satire.

This exhibition includes work from Briggs’ pioneering titles, including The Snowman, Father Christmas (1973), Fungus the Bogeyman (1977) and autobiographical graphic novel Ethel and Ernest (1998). It features original illustrations courtesy of Raymond Briggs's Archive and Penguin Random House.

Throughout the school holidays, until February 26, the museum's education team will be running workshops inspired by the exhibition where people can join in and get creative with sculpture, collage, painting and textiles sessions on different days.

Tickets for the exhibition, which is co-curated by Nicolette Jones and Katie McCurrach and on tour from Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration, can be booked at thebowesmuseum.org.uk. Admission to the museum is £12.50 for local membership, £14.50 for membership and £17.50 for a day ticket. Under 18s, full time students and carers go free.