James Brian Jacques (15 June 1939 – 5 February 2011) was an English writer best known for his Redwall series of novels and Castaways of the Flying Dutchman series. He also completed two collections of short stories entitled The Ribbajack & Other Curious Yarns and Seven Strange and Ghostly Tales.
Brian Jacques was born in Liverpool, England, on 15 June 1939. His parents were James Alfred Jacques, a Haulage Contractor, and Ellen Ryan.
James Alfred Jacques was born in Liverpool in 1907. His parents, Thomas Jacques and Ada Smith, moved to Liverpool from the St Helens area in the 1890s. The Jacques family had Lancashire roots; there is no record of them having French ancestry.
Ellen Ryan was born in Liverpool in 1908. She came from a Liverpool Irish family with roots in a number of different Irish counties. Ellen's father, Matthew Ryan, was born in County Wexford, Ireland in 1872. Ellen's mother, Elizabeth "Cissy" McGuinness, who was Brian's maternal grandmother, was born in Liverpool in 1882.
Brian Jacques believed that he had French ancestry because of his French sounding surname. When he found out that people with the Jacques surname were living in County Cork, Ireland he wrongly assumed that his family roots were in County Cork, Ireland. A large percentage of Liverpool people do have Irish ancestry so it was easy for Brian to make this mistake.
Brian grew up in Kirkdale near to the Liverpool Docks. He was known by his middle name 'Brian' because his father and a brother were also named James. His father loved literature and read his boy adventure stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Edgar Rice Burroughs, but also The Wind in the Willows with its cast of animals.
Jacques showed early writing talent. At age 10, assigned to write an animal story, he wrote about a bird that cleaned a crocodile's teeth. His teacher could not believe that a 10-year-old wrote it, and caned the boy for refusing to admit copying the story. He had always loved to write, but only then did he realize the extent of his abilities.
He attended St. John's school until age 15, when he left school (as was usual at the time) and set out to find adventure as a merchant sailor. His book Redwall was written for his "special friends", the children of the Royal Wavertree School for the Blind, whom he first met while delivering milk. He began to spend time with the children, and eventually began to write stories for them. This accounts for the very descriptive style of his novels, which emphasize sound, smell, taste, gravity, balance, temperature, touch and kinesthetics, not just visual sensations. He became dissatisfied with the state of children's literature, with too much adolescent angst and not enough magic.
His work gained acclaim when Alan Durband, his former English teacher (who also taught Paul McCartney and George Harrison), showed it to his (Durband's) own publisher without telling Jacques. Durband told his publishers: "This is the finest children's tale I've ever read, and you'd be foolish not to publish it". Soon after, Jacques was summoned to London to meet with the publishers, who gave him a contract to write the next five books in the series.
Redwall was an 800-page handwritten manuscript. It is now common for children's books to have 350 pages, and the "Harry Potter" books far exceed that, but in those days 200 was regarded as the maximum that would hold a child's attention. It set the tone for the whole series, centered on the triumph of good over evil, with peaceful mice, badgers, voles, hares, moles and squirrels defeating rats, weasels, ferrets, snakes and stoats. He 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. But the subsequent books ignore our species 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 said that the characters in his stories are based on people he has encountered. He based Gonff, the self-proclaimed "Prince of Mousethieves", on himself when he was a young boy hanging around the docks of Liverpool. 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 has met in his travels.
Jacques remembered well the rationing during the 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 mouth-watering detail. The war also informed his depictions of gruesome battles.
Brian was known to prefer old-fashioned ways; he always preferred an old typewriter as being more reliable than a computer, and he was known to be not fond of videogames and other modern tech, though he allowed an animated television series to be produced which he introduced himself each episode on PBS and answered children's questions after the cartoon ended. The Teletoon airings omitted that. He never felt that he fit the image of a writer sitting in his garden, and told the New York Times in 2001, "I have a working-class ethic. I get up in the morning, and I still feel guilty about being a famous author." Nonetheless 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 twenty million copies worldwide and have been published in twenty-eight languages.
Jacques also had musical interests. In the 1960s he formed a folk music band, the Liverpool Fishermen, with two of his brothers. He hosted a radio show called Jakestown on BBC Radio Merseyside from 1986 to 2006, featuring selections from his favorite operas.
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Brian Jacques was born in Liverpool, England, on 15 June 1939. His parents were James Alfred Jacques, a Haulage Contractor, and Ellen Ryan.
James Alfred Jacques was born in Liverpool in 1907. His parents, Thomas Jacques and Ada Smith, moved to Liverpool from the St Helens area in the 1890s. The Jacques family had Lancashire roots; there is no record of them having French ancestry.
Ellen Ryan was born in Liverpool in 1908. She came from a Liverpool Irish family with roots in a number of different Irish counties. Ellen's father, Matthew Ryan, was born in County Wexford, Ireland in 1872. Ellen's mother, Elizabeth "Cissy" McGuinness, who was Brian's maternal grandmother, was born in Liverpool in 1882.
Brian Jacques believed that he had French ancestry because of his French sounding surname. When he found out that people with the Jacques surname were living in County Cork, Ireland he wrongly assumed that his family roots were in County Cork, Ireland. A large percentage of Liverpool people do have Irish ancestry so it was easy for Brian to make this mistake.
Brian grew up in Kirkdale near to the Liverpool Docks. He was known by his middle name 'Brian' because his father and a brother were also named James. His father loved literature and read his boy adventure stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Edgar Rice Burroughs, but also The Wind in the Willows with its cast of animals.
Jacques showed early writing talent. At age 10, assigned to write an animal story, he wrote about a bird that cleaned a crocodile's teeth. His teacher could not believe that a 10-year-old wrote it, and caned the boy for refusing to admit copying the story. He had always loved to write, but only then did he realize the extent of his abilities.
He attended St. John's school until age 15, when he left school (as was usual at the time) and set out to find adventure as a merchant sailor. His book Redwall was written for his "special friends", the children of the Royal Wavertree School for the Blind, whom he first met while delivering milk. He began to spend time with the children, and eventually began to write stories for them. This accounts for the very descriptive style of his novels, which emphasize sound, smell, taste, gravity, balance, temperature, touch and kinesthetics, not just visual sensations. He became dissatisfied with the state of children's literature, with too much adolescent angst and not enough magic.
His work gained acclaim when Alan Durband, his former English teacher (who also taught Paul McCartney and George Harrison), showed it to his (Durband's) own publisher without telling Jacques. Durband told his publishers: "This is the finest children's tale I've ever read, and you'd be foolish not to publish it". Soon after, Jacques was summoned to London to meet with the publishers, who gave him a contract to write the next five books in the series.
Redwall was an 800-page handwritten manuscript. It is now common for children's books to have 350 pages, and the "Harry Potter" books far exceed that, but in those days 200 was regarded as the maximum that would hold a child's attention. It set the tone for the whole series, centered on the triumph of good over evil, with peaceful mice, badgers, voles, hares, moles and squirrels defeating rats, weasels, ferrets, snakes and stoats. He 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. But the subsequent books ignore our species 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 said that the characters in his stories are based on people he has encountered. He based Gonff, the self-proclaimed "Prince of Mousethieves", on himself when he was a young boy hanging around the docks of Liverpool. 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 has met in his travels.
Jacques remembered well the rationing during the 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 mouth-watering detail. The war also informed his depictions of gruesome battles.
Brian was known to prefer old-fashioned ways; he always preferred an old typewriter as being more reliable than a computer, and he was known to be not fond of videogames and other modern tech, though he allowed an animated television series to be produced which he introduced himself each episode on PBS and answered children's questions after the cartoon ended. The Teletoon airings omitted that. He never felt that he fit the image of a writer sitting in his garden, and told the New York Times in 2001, "I have a working-class ethic. I get up in the morning, and I still feel guilty about being a famous author." Nonetheless 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 twenty million copies worldwide and have been published in twenty-eight languages.
Jacques also had musical interests. In the 1960s he formed a folk music band, the Liverpool Fishermen, with two of his brothers. He hosted a radio show called Jakestown on BBC Radio Merseyside from 1986 to 2006, featuring selections from his favorite operas.
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