Question: Who was the author of the book, on which Channel 4's 1982 film, for which Howard Blake wrote the soundtrack. is based ? 
Context: "Walking in the Air" is a song written by Howard Blake for the 1982 animated film of Raymond Briggs' 1978 children's book "The Snowman".  The song forms the centrepiece of "The Snowman", which has become a seasonal favorite on British and Finnish television.  The story relates the fleeting adventures of a young boy and a snowman who has come to life.  In the second part of the story, the boy and the snowman fly to the North Pole.  "Walking in the Air" is the theme for the journey.  They attend a party of snowmen, at which the boy seems to be the only human until they meet Father Christmas with his reindeer, and the boy is given a scarf with a snowman pattern.  In the film, the song was performed by St Paul's Cathedral choirboy Peter Auty, and reissued in 1985 (on Stiff Records) and 1987. Howard Blake OBE (born 28 October 1938) is an English composer, conductor, and pianist whose career has spanned more than 50 years and produced more than 650 works.  Blake's most successful work is his soundtrack for Channel 4’s 1982 film "The Snowman" including the song "Walking in the Air".  He is increasingly recognised for his classical works including concertos, oratorios, ballets, operas and many instrumental pieces. Florence Guinness Blake (November 30, 1907 - September 12, 1983) was an American nurse, professor and author who made significant contributions to pediatric nursing and to family-centered nursing care.  Blake wrote her classic text, "The Child, His Parents and the Nurse", in 1954.  She co-authored two other pediatric nursing textbooks, "Essentials of Pediatric Nursing" and "Nursing Care of Children".  She was on the nursing faculty at several American universities.  She was posthumously honored with induction into the American Nurses Association Hall of Fame. Corey Blake is an entrepreneur, storyteller and former actor and filmmaker.  He has released graphic novel translations of popular book titles.  Blake founded and ran the nonprofit organization known as The From the Barrio Foundation, which "committed to using author Robert Renteria’s life, business experience, and role as a civic leader to help eliminate conditions that foster violence, delinquency, drugs, and gangs."  In order to produce his comic books, Blake has established a publishing house, based in Highland Park, Illinois known as Writers of the Round Table Press, which has produced renditions of "The Long Tail" and "The Art of War", among others, including "Shut Up, Stop Whining, & Get a Life", "Overachievement, How to Master the Art of Selling" and "Mi Barrio".  These books are widely used in the educational sector, as well as in youth prisons.  The authors of these books "all agreed to exchange rights for a token $100 each, in return for royalty payments of as much as 20% of Round Table’s take", according to "Forbes".  The comic book versions of the titles are available at major bookstores such as Barnes & Noble, Indigo Books and Music; the publications are also released in digital format, for devices such as iPhones, as well as BlackBerry and Android devices.  Blake's motivation for format translation stems from his interest in attracting busy professionals and a new generation of readers who prefer to be entertained as they are educated.  In the education sector, Corey Blake has organized the delineation of the United States Constitution, as well as its ratification process in a work titled "United States Constitution: A Graphic Adaptation".  Kate Kelly noted that in the text, Blake's company "included women as part of the process that looks to the future.  A female in period clothes is used to depict several of the explanations concerning the power of the Constitution, and women are represented in the sections that address Congress and its responsibilities.  In May 2013, Corey Blake has also launched the production of a publication, aimed at the fifth grade standard, known as "The Crusaders", a "comic that use[d] real-life authors as super heroes to help kids face challenges."  Blake has also pictorialized the story of Riley Weinstein, a teenage girl who has "survived nearly 20 brain surgeries, five strokes and paralysis." Soul Music is a seven-part animated television adaptation of the 1994 book of the same name by Terry Pratchett, produced by Channel 4 Television Corporation/Cosgrove Hall Films/ITEL/Ventureworld Films and distributed by Channel 4 Television Corporation (1996) (UK) (TV) & Vision Video (2001) (UK) (DVD).  It was first broadcast on 12 May 1997 and released on DVD in 2001 alongside Wyrd Sisters in a box set entitled "Soul Music".  The feature-length miniseries was developed by Acorn Media, and directed by Jean Flynn.  It was the first film adaptation of an entire "Discworld" novel (following the "Welcome to the Discworld" short, which was based on a fragment of the novel "Reaper Man").  The series soundtrack was also released on CD, but the disc is now out of production.  The soundtrack is, however, now available through iTunes.  Editz did the title sequences, Flix Facilities did the digital picture editing, and Hullabaloo Studios did the audio post-production. Mark "Dodger" Savage (born Mark Blake) is a fictional character from the British Channel 4 soap opera, "Hollyoaks", played by Danny Mac.  He made his first on-screen appearance on 7 April 2011 and was introduced as part of the Savage family by creator Paul Marquess.  Dodger is played as being a bit "cocky" and as thinking he has "got it all".  For his portrayal, Mac has won and been nominated for various awards.  In November 2014 Mac opted to leave the role and Dodger on screen on 20 January 2015.  Dodger was the biological son of Patrick Blake (Jeremy Sheffield) and Anna Blake (Saskia Wickham), the twin brother of Sienna Blake (Anna Passey), the adoptive son of Anna's husband Dirk Savage (David Kennedy), the half-brother of Will Savage (James Atherton), Liberty Savage (Abi Philips) and Minnie Minniver and the father of Nico Blake (Persephone Swales-Dawson) and Myra-Pocahontas Savage-McQueen. Channel 4 News is the main news programme on British television broadcaster Channel 4.  It is produced by ITN, and has been in operation since Channel 4's launch in November 1982. Sophie "Nico" Blake (also Bradley) is a fictional character from the British Channel 4 soap opera, "Hollyoaks", played by Persephone Swales-Dawson.  The character made her first screen appearance during the episode broadcast on 6 June 2014.  The character and casting was announced on 20 May 2014.  Nico is the daughter and niece of established twins characters Dodger Savage (Danny Mac) and Sienna Blake (Anna Passey), the adoptive daughter of Ben Bradley (Ben Richards), and the granddaughter of Patrick Blake (Jeremy Sheffield) and Anna Blake (Saskia Wickham) and the niece of Will Savage (James Atherton), Liberty Savage (Abi Phillips) and Minnie Minniver and a half-sister and first cousin of Myra-Pocahontas Savage-McQueen. Flash Gordon is a 1980 science fiction action film created in Technicolor and Todd-AO, based on the King Features comic strip of the same name created by Alex Raymond.  The film was directed by Mike Hodges and produced by Dino De Laurentiis.  It stars Sam J. Jones, Melody Anderson, Topol, Max von Sydow, Timothy Dalton, Brian Blessed and Ornella Muti.  The movie was co-written by Michael Allin (of "Enter the Dragon" fame) and Lorenzo Semple Jr. (who had previously scripted De Laurentiis's remake of "King Kong").  It intentionally uses a camp style similar to the 1960s TV series "Batman" (for which Semple had developed and written many episodes) in an attempt to appeal to fans of the original comics and serial films. Although a box office success in the United Kingdom, it performed poorly overseas.  The film is notable for its soundtrack composed, performed and produced by the rock band Queen, with the orchestral sections by Howard Blake.  The film has since gained a significant cult following. The Snowman is a children's picture book without words by English author Raymond Briggs, first published in 1978 by Hamish Hamilton in the United Kingdom, and published by Random House in the United States in November of the same year.  In the UK, it was the runner up for the Kate Greenaway Medal from the Library Association, recognising the year's best children's book illustration by a British writer.
Answer: Raymond Briggs,