Brian Jacques | |
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 Jacques in November 2007 | |
| Born | James Brian Jacques (1939-06-15)15 June 1939 Liverpool, England |
| Died | 5 February 2011(2011-02-05) (aged 71) Liverpool, England |
| Resting place | Anfield Cemetery, Liverpool |
| Education | St John's School |
| Occupation | Author |
| Known for | Redwall novel series |
| Spouse | Maureen Jacques |
| Children | 2 |
| Website | www |
James Brian Jacques (/ˈdʒeɪks/, as in "Jakes";[1] 15 June 1939 – 5 February 2011), known professionally asBrian Jacques, was an English author known for hisRedwall series of children's fantasy novels andCastaways of the Flying Dutchman series. He also completed two collections of short stories entitledThe Ribbajack & Other Curious Yarns andSeven Strange and Ghostly Tales.
James Brian Jacques was born inLiverpool on 15 June 1939.[2] Jacques' parents were James Alfred Jacques, a truck driver, and Ellen Ryan, both born in Liverpool. His father's family were fromLancashire, his mother's family all hadIrish roots. Jacques' maternal grandfather, Matthew Ryan, was fromWexford,Ireland.[3] Jacques was the middle child: he had an older brother, Tony, and a younger brother, James.[4]
Jacques grew up inKirkdale near to theLiverpool Docks.[1] He was known by his middle name, Brian, because his father and younger brother were also named James. His father loved literature and read his boys adventure stories byDaniel Defoe,Sir Thomas Mallory,Sir Arthur Conan Doyle,Robert Louis Stevenson, andEdgar Rice Burroughs, but alsoThe Wind in the Willows with its cast of animals. Jacques showed early writing talent.[4]
At age ten, assigned to write an animal story, he wrote about abird that cleaned a crocodile's teeth. His teacher could not believe that a ten-year-old wrote it, and caned him for refusing to admit copying the story.[4] He attended St John's Roman Catholic school in Kirkdale, where his favourite teacher was Austin Thomas, a formerSecond World War army captain. Thomas had a major impact on Jacques: "I was fourteen at the time when Mr. Thomas introduced the class to poetry and Greek literature. It was because of him, I saved seven shillings and sixpence to buyThe Iliad andThe Odyssey at this dusty used book shop."[1]
Jacques left school at age fifteen, as was usual at the time, and set out to find adventure as amerchant sailor. When he returned to Liverpool, he began a varied career, spending time as a railway fireman, longshoreman, long-distance truck driver, bus driver, postmaster, and a stand-up entertainer. However, he often visited the local public library to continue his love of reading, and continued to develop his writing abilities.[1][4] He published a succession of humorous poems and short stories through the 1970s, and in 1981 won a long term Residency at theEveryman Theatre, Liverpool, where his playsBrown Bitter,Wet Nellies andScouse were performed.[1][4][5]
In the 1980s, Jacques worked as a milkman, on a round which included theRoyal Wavertree School for the Blind.[1] He got to know the children there, and volunteered to read to them. However, he became dissatisfied with the state ofchildren's literature, with too much adolescent angst, and began to write stories for them. So that the visually impaired children would be able to picture the scenes he was writing for them, he developed a highly descriptive style, emphasizing sound, smell, taste, gravity, balance, temperature, touch, and kinesthetics.[6] From these short stories and reading sessions emergedRedwall, an 800-page handwritten manuscript.[7]
During his time at the Everyman Theatre,[8] Jacques had met and become friends withAlan Durband, an English teacher atC.F. Mott College of Education,[9][10] a writer, and co-founder of the Everyman.[1] Wanting Durband's opinion ofRedwall, Jacques gave him the completed manuscript. Impressed, Durband then showed it to his own publisher without telling Jacques.[1] Durband reportedly told his publishers: "This is the finest children's tale I've ever read, and you'd be foolish not to publish it"; Jacques was summoned to London to meet with the publishers, who gave him a contract to write the next five books in the series.[1]
Redwall was unusual for its length. Although it is now common for children's books to have 350 pages, and theHarry Potter books far exceed that, at the time it was commonly regarded that 200 pages were the maximum that would hold a child's attention.[7] It set the tone for the series as a whole, centering on the triumph of good over evil, with peaceful mice, badgers, voles, hares, moles and squirrels defeating rats, weasels, ferrets, snakes and stoats. Jacques did not shy away from the reality of battle, and many of the "good" creatures die.
Redwall alludes to the surrounding human civilization - for example, with a scene featuring a horse-drawn cart. The subsequent books ignore humans completely, portraying an Iron Age society from the misty past building castles, bridges and ships to the scale of forest creatures, writing their own literature and drawing their own maps. Jacques was highly involved in the audio books of his work, even personally enlisting his sons and others to voice Redwall inhabitants. Jacques said that the characters in his stories are based on people he encountered in his life. He based Gonff, the self-proclaimed "Prince of Mousethieves", on himself when he was a young boy hanging around the docks of Liverpool.[11] Mariel is based on his granddaughter. Constance the Badgermum is based on his maternal grandmother. Other characters are a combination of many of the people he had met in his travels.[11]
Jacques lived through therationing during and after the Second World War, when he fantasized about the dishes in his aunt's illustrated Victorian cookbook. Groaning boards spread with sumptuous feasts are common scenes in his stories, described in intricate sensory detail. The war also informed his depictions of gruesome battles. Jacques was known to be old-fashioned in his living; he thought an old typewriter to be more reliable than a computer, and he was known to be not fond of video games and other modern technology, though he allowed ananimated television series to be produced based on his work, which aired on PBS in the United States. In the series, he introduced himself at the beginning of each episode and answered children's questions at the end, though the UK and Canadian airings omitted the Q&A session. He never felt that he fit the image of a "writer sitting in his garden."[12] Nevertheless, he was deeply touched by his success at reaching children. He was also pleased to be recognized by the people of Liverpool. His novels have sold more than 20 million copies worldwide[7] and have been published in 28 languages.[4]
Jacques lived with his wife, Maureen, in Liverpool. They had two sons: Marc is a carpenter and bricklayer, and David a contemporary artist and muralist.[12]
Jacques had musical interests. In the 1960s, he formed a folk music band with two of his brothers; the band is called the Liverpool Fishermen. He hosted a radio show calledJakestown onBBC Radio Merseyside from 1986 to 2006, featuring selections from his favourite operas.[2]
In 2011, Jacques was admitted to theRoyal Liverpool Hospital to undergo emergency surgery for anaortic aneurysm.[13] He died from a heart attack at 71 years old on 5 February 2011.[14][15]
In June 2005, he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Letters by theUniversity of Liverpool.[16] A prize was created atBristol Grammar School, known as the 'Brian Jacques Award for Most Improved Creative Writing', and is awarded to a student in Year 8 as book tokens.[17]
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