1. James Brian Jacques, known professionally as Brian Jacques, was an English author known for his Redwall series of children's fantasy novels and Castaways of the Flying Dutchman series.
22 Facts About Brian Jacques
1. 2.
James Brian Jacques was born in Liverpool on 15 June 1939.
3.
Brian Jacques was the middle child: he had an older brother, Tony, and a younger brother, James.
4.
Brian Jacques grew up in Kirkdale near to the Liverpool Docks.
5.
Brian Jacques was known by his middle name, Brian, because his father and younger brother were named James.
6.
Brian Jacques's father loved literature and read his boys adventure stories by Daniel Defoe, Sir Thomas Mallory, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Edgar Rice Burroughs, but The Wind in the Willows with its cast of animals.
7.
Brian Jacques attended St John's Roman Catholic school in Kirkdale, where his favourite teacher was Austin Thomas, a former Second World War army captain.
8.
Brian Jacques left school at age fifteen, as was usual at the time, and set out to find adventure as a merchant sailor.
9.
Brian Jacques published a succession of humorous poems and short stories through the 1970s, and in 1981 won a long term Residency at the Everyman Theatre, Liverpool, where his plays Brown Bitter, Wet Nellies and Scouse were performed.
10.
Brian Jacques got to know the children there, and volunteered to read to them.
11.
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"; Brian Jacques was summoned to London to meet with the publishers, who gave him a contract to write the next five books in the series.
12.
Brian Jacques did not shy away from the reality of battle, and many of the "good" creatures die.
13.
Brian Jacques was highly involved in the audio books of his work, even personally enlisting his sons and others to voice Redwall inhabitants.
14.
Brian Jacques said that the characters in his stories are based on people he encountered in his life.
15.
Brian Jacques based Gonff, the self-proclaimed "Prince of Mousethieves", on himself when he was a young boy hanging around the docks of Liverpool.
16.
Brian Jacques lived through the rationing during and after the Second World War, when he fantasized about the dishes in his aunt's illustrated Victorian cookbook.
17.
Brian 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 an animated television series to be produced based on his work, which aired on PBS in the United States.
18.
Brian Jacques was pleased to be recognized by the people of Liverpool.
19.
Brian Jacques's novels have sold more than 20 million copies worldwide and have been published in 28 languages.
20.
Brian Jacques hosted a radio show called Jakestown on BBC Radio Merseyside from 1986 to 2006, featuring selections from his favourite operas.
21.
In 2011, Brian Jacques was admitted to the Royal Liverpool Hospital to undergo emergency surgery for an aortic aneurysm.
22.
Brian Jacques died from a heart attack at 71 years old on 5 February 2011.