Quick_Sylver
February 19th, 2011, 12:59 AM
Behind Brian Jacques' hugely popular "Redwall" series of children's fantasy novels was milk, tea and a bit of serendipity.
As a milk deliveryman in his 40s in Liverpool, England, he was invited in for tea at one of his stops, the Royal Wavertree School for the Blind, and soon volunteered to read stories to the children there.
He found the plots "dreadful," preoccupied with the "here and now" of teen angst and divorce. "I thought, 'What's wrong with a little magic in their lives?'" he told the New York Times in 2001.
It took Jacques — pronounced "Jakes" — seven months to hand-write an 800-page manuscript. He stuffed the pages into a grocery bag and handed them to his former English teacher, who shopped the novel around without Jacques' knowledge.
In 1986, a British publisher bought "Redwall" for a little more than $4,000 and gave him a contract for four more books. One of the most popular contemporary fantasy series had been born.
Jacques died Feb. 5, according to his official website (http://redwall.org/). British media reported that he died in a Liverpool hospital after emergency heart surgery. He was 71.
Drawing on the British traditions of literary animals and pop medievalism, Jacques invented a world set around fictional Redwall Abbey. He populated his good-vs.-evil adventures with feisty creatures of the forest who talked.
The good guys — including mice, badgers and squirrels — always vanquish such villains as ferrets, snakes and weasels. The books brim with riddles, battles and descriptions of lavish feasts, a fascination that Jacques linked to the food rationing he endured as a child during World War II.
Read More (http://articles.latimes.com/2011/feb/13/local/la-me-brian-jacques-20110213)
~~~~~~~
http://i749.photobucket.com/albums/xx138/Secrasi/sadface.jpg
As a milk deliveryman in his 40s in Liverpool, England, he was invited in for tea at one of his stops, the Royal Wavertree School for the Blind, and soon volunteered to read stories to the children there.
He found the plots "dreadful," preoccupied with the "here and now" of teen angst and divorce. "I thought, 'What's wrong with a little magic in their lives?'" he told the New York Times in 2001.
It took Jacques — pronounced "Jakes" — seven months to hand-write an 800-page manuscript. He stuffed the pages into a grocery bag and handed them to his former English teacher, who shopped the novel around without Jacques' knowledge.
In 1986, a British publisher bought "Redwall" for a little more than $4,000 and gave him a contract for four more books. One of the most popular contemporary fantasy series had been born.
Jacques died Feb. 5, according to his official website (http://redwall.org/). British media reported that he died in a Liverpool hospital after emergency heart surgery. He was 71.
Drawing on the British traditions of literary animals and pop medievalism, Jacques invented a world set around fictional Redwall Abbey. He populated his good-vs.-evil adventures with feisty creatures of the forest who talked.
The good guys — including mice, badgers and squirrels — always vanquish such villains as ferrets, snakes and weasels. The books brim with riddles, battles and descriptions of lavish feasts, a fascination that Jacques linked to the food rationing he endured as a child during World War II.
Read More (http://articles.latimes.com/2011/feb/13/local/la-me-brian-jacques-20110213)
~~~~~~~
http://i749.photobucket.com/albums/xx138/Secrasi/sadface.jpg