Friday, May 30, 2008

Brian Jacques

Brian Jacques is the English author who has written the well-known Redwall Series. Brian was born in Liverpool, England, growing up near the Liverpool docks. Brian showed his initiative as a writer when he was young.
He started attending St. John’s School at age ten. He was given a writing assignment about animals and he wrote about a bird that cleaned crocodile teeth. It was very well written and his teacher was amazed. Brian the figured out that he had some potential in writing. At age fifteen he left St. John’s School to be a sailor.
His book, Redwall, was originally written for the children of the Royal Wavertree School for the Blind. His books became famous after his friend, Alan Durband, showed the book to his publisher without telling Brian. The publishers loved the book and they called Brian down to London and they gave him a contract to write the next five books in the series.
The characters from Redwall are based on real people. Gonff, the “Prince of Mouse Thieves” was based on a young boy from the docks of Liverpool, Mariel is based on his granddaughter, and Constance the Badgermum was based on his grandmother.
Brian Jacques novels have sold more then twenty million copies and have been published in twenty-eight different languages. Right now there is nineteen books in the series, but there is most likely more to come. His stories are so engaging that you forget that the characters are animals and not humans.

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