Credit: BBC

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  • BBC

Growing up, Brian Jacques’ Redwall series (featuring armed mice and other animals) was a staple on my bookshelf. It was also the first time I was introduced to the concept of killing off main characters. (Sure, I admit it; I welled-up when certain voles and badgers of Redwall lore met their demise at the end of a sword. It’s heavy stuff!)

Anyhow, the prolific author passed away at the age of 71 this weekend due to a heart attack. Jacques wrote 21 Redwall novels as well as running a radio show, Jakestown, on BBC Radio for 20 years. His novels were turned into a both a television series and an opera. From the BBC:

Mr Jacques grew up near to the docks in Liverpool and when he left school at 15, travelled the world as a merchant seaman.

In the sixties, with his two brothers, he formed a folk group called The Liverpool Fishermen.

Even as a child he showed literary talent.

He was caned by a teacher who could not believe that a 10-year-old could write so well when he penned a short story about a bird who cleaned a crocodile’s teeth.

8 replies on “Brian Jacques Dies at 71”

  1. Redwall has a weird place in the nostalgic geek canon now. No one talks about it much and it’s been overshadowed by Harry Potter as the Popular Children’s Fantasy Series.

    But growing up, damn near every kid in middle school had one of those books under their arm, nestled right up next to their Trapper Keeper. I devoured those things when they came out, and was totally starstruck when I Jacques signed my tattered copy of Redwall when he came to Portland.

    Yeah, the later novels were less than awesome, and it’s sort of weird and racist that rats are always bad and mice are always good. But still, Jacques’ was a master adventure-crafter.

    And yes- more than a few times I was shocked when jolly, cheerful characters ended up impaled on a spear. That man is responsible for not a few of my first “oh shit!” moments. Maybe, eventually, he’ll get the nostalgia he deserves.

  2. Maybe I just talk about kids’ books more often than most grownups, but I feel like Redwall comes up pretty often—most recently it was in reference to food, because those feast descriptions were so elaborate. I only read the first 6 or 7, but that was maybe the first series where the books were actually coming out as I was reading them. Salamandastron was a HUGE DEAL.

  3. I really liked these books. I was about to comment on the food descriptions, too. I would always zone out during the elaborate descriptions of their meals.

    Anyway, sad he’s gone!

  4. I really liked the first few books that I read as a kid, but until very recently, when I think Alison mentioned them, I didn’t know that anyone else on earth had ever read them too.

  5. I’d say I got at least 10 or 12 in. I probably could have done them all, but I started to age out of running down to Powell’s and buying the new one every year. I certainly reread Mossflower more than a handful of times.

    @Alison: I also talk about the series more than is probably average. The series introduced me to quite a few concepts of adulthood and medieval warfare (cordial and javelin slings, respectively).

  6. I only ever read the first one. I remember liking it, but continuing in the series would have severely hindered my efforts to read every Star Wars book in print.

  7. Damn. Now I want to read my tattered old paperback of Redwall again. I remember that one and Mossflower and Martin of Redwall all being badass; less so with the later ones. I lost interest at some point–this being one of the first times that had happened to me with something I liked–and I remember being profoundly bummed out that I wasn’t feeling ’em anymore.

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