Brian Jacques

1 universe Last reviewed 2026-08-13

Brian Jacques, born James Brian Jacques on June 15, 1939, in Liverpool, England, attended St John's Roman Catholic School in Kirkdale before leaving formal education at fifteen to work as a merchant sailor. He subsequently held a wide variety of jobs, including railway fireman, longshoreman, truck driver, bus driver, postmaster, and entertainer, and won a writing residency at the Everyman Theatre in Liverpool in 1981, where his plays were performed. While working as a milkman in the 1980s, he volunteered to read to children at the Royal Wavertree School for the Blind, an experience that directly inspired the sensory-rich, vividly descriptive prose style of his fiction. Jacques is best known for the Redwall series, more than twenty novels beginning in 1986 centered on anthropomorphic animals and the triumph of good over evil, which sold over twenty million copies worldwide in twenty-eight languages. He also wrote the Castaways of the Flying Dutchman trilogy, short story collections, and reference guides to the Redwall world. He received an honorary Doctorate of Letters from the University of Liverpool in 2005, and Bristol Grammar School established the Brian Jacques Award for Most Improved Creative Writing in his honor. He was married to Maureen and had two sons, Marc and David. He died February 5, 2011, at age 71.