Brian Jacques
Brian Jacques was a British author and broadcaster born on June 15, 1939, in Liverpool, England. He grew up in a modest family as the son of Irish immigrants and demonstrated an early passion for storytelling, although he left school at fifteen to pursue various jobs, including working as a merchant seaman and a railway fireman. Jacques gained fame in the 1980s when he began writing stories for children at the Royal Wavertree School for the Blind. This led to the creation of his renowned Redwall series, which debuted with the book "Redwall" in 1986. This series features anthropomorphic animals and explores themes of good versus evil in a medieval setting. The Redwall books have garnered international acclaim and a devoted readership, winning numerous awards along the way. In addition to his literary career, Jacques was also a broadcaster, hosting music appreciation shows on BBC Radio Merseyside. His diverse talents extended to playwriting and creating radio documentaries, further showcasing his creative range.
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Brian Jacques
Author
- Born: June 15, 1939
- Birthplace: Liverpool, England
- Died: February 5, 2011
- Place of death: Liverpool, England
Biography
Brian Jacques (rhymes with “lakes”) was born on June 15, 1939, in Liverpool, England, one of three sons of truck driver James Jacques and his wife, Ellen, poor Catholic immigrants from County Cork, Ireland. Though an eager reader of adventure stories who demonstrated writing talent as early as age ten, Jacques left St. John’s School when he was fifteen years old. He then embarked on a long string of jobs, including logger, bus driver, boxer, postman, and policeman. His primary occupations were merchant seaman from 1954 to 1957, railway fireman from 1957 to 1960, longshoreman from 1960 to 1965, truck driver from 1965 to 1975, and docks representative from 1975 to 1980. When he was not working at these jobs, he performed stand-up comedy and was a member of a folk trio, The Liverpool Fisherman, with his brothers Tony and James.
His experience as an entertainer served Jacques well when, having passed his fortieth birthday, he became a broadcaster on the British Broadcasting Corporation’s Radio Merseyside. Since then, he has hosted the programs Jakestown and Saturday with Brian Jacques, both music appreciation shows particularly concerned with opera. He also has hosted programs for schoolchildren and game shows, written documentaries, and created other radio series. Jacques received both the National Light Entertainment Award for Radio and the Rediffusion Award for Best Light Entertainment on Local Radio in 1982.
Jacques began his writing career in the 1980’s, penning plays for radio and television as well as three stage plays, Brown Bitter, Wet Nellies, and Scouse, that were all produced at the Everyman Theater in Liverpool. He achieved worldwide fame as a writer almost by accident. He composed a series of descriptive anthropomorphic fantasy stories to entertain the children at the Royal Wavertree School for the Blind, to whom he used to deliver milk, and of which he is a longtime patron. A former teacher at St. John’s School showed Jacques’s manuscripts to a publisher, and the author was given a five-book contract.
The first book, Redwall, appeared in 1986, with illustrations by Gary Chalk. A tale of good and evil set in medieval times, Redwall pits the primarily vegetarian woodland creatures of Redwall Abbey (mice, moles, squirrels, rabbits, hedgehogs, and otters) against carnivorous predators (rats, foxes, snakes, ferrets, and weasels) in an epic battle told with charm and wit. Redwall was an immediate success, spawning a whole series of books, including Mossflower (1988), Mattimeo (1989), Salamandastron (1992), Taggerung (2001), Triss (2002), and High Rhulian (2005). The Redwall series has captured the imagination of young adult readers from American Samoa to Zimbabwe and won critical acclaim as well. Redwall was selected as a Parent’s Choice Honor Book, an American Library Association Best Book, and a School Library Journal Best Book and received a Children’s Book of the Year Award, a Western Australia Young Reader’s Award, and a Carnegie nomination. Subsequent entries, particularly Mattimeo, Mossflower, and Salamandastron, have received similar recognition. Most of the books are available in abridged audio versions, and picture books, cookbooks, and other tie-ins to the series also have been produced
In addition to the Redwall saga, Jacques published the collection Seven Strange and Ghostly Tales (1991) and two illustrated books in a series based on the legend of the phantom ship, The Flying Dutchman: Castaways of the Flying Dutchman (2001) and The Angel’s Command (2003). A third book in the series, “Voyage of the Slaves,” was scheduled to be released in September, 2006.