Brian Jacques, 1939–2011

Delivering milk on his rounds in Liverpool, England, Brian Jacques was invited in for tea at the Royal Wavertree School for the Blind. He offered to read books to the children, he recalled in a 2001 interview, but found the stories “dreadful” and devoid of inspiration. So Jacques attempted a children’s novel of his own, eventually producing a hand-scrawled 800-page manuscript, which he handed to a former schoolteacher of his (who had also taught Paul McCartney and George Harrison). The teacher passed the manuscript to a publisher, who in 1986 gave Jacques a five-book deal—resulting in the Redwall books, one of the most beloved series in children’s literature.

The son of a truck driver, Jacques grew up near the Liverpool docks during World War II, said the London Independent, “which meant that for the first years of his life he had the almost daily experience of German bombs falling.” He became a merchant seaman at age 15 and proceeded to work as a truck driver, longshoreman, boxer, folksinger, and bobby. But Jacques had always had a literary flair. At age 10 he wrote a story about a bird and a crocodile that was so skillfully wrought that his teacher beat him for alleged plagiarism.

He was in his 40s by the time he wrote his first adventure story, said the Los Angeles Times. “Drawing on the British traditions of literary animals and pop medievalism, Jacques invented a world set around fictional Redwall Abbey,” where the good guys—mice, badgers, and squirrels—vanquish a cast of villains including ferrets, snakes, and weasels. Filled with battles, quests, and cliff-hangers, the books depict a constant conflict between good and evil. “Mice are my heroes,” Jacques said, “because, like children, mice are little and have to learn to be courageous and use their wits.”

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“Published in more than 20 countries, the Redwall books have sold more than 20 million copies and inspired an animated series,” said The New York Times. The 22nd Redwall book, The Rogue Crew, is scheduled to be published in May. In addition, Jacques wrote plays, short stories, poems, and songs. Remaining in Liverpool after his books had made him wealthy, he preferred to write in warm weather beneath an apple tree in his backyard. “I have a working-class ethic,” he said. “I get up in the morning and I still feel guilty about being a famous author.”