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RedWall Abbey. By Brian Jacques Miles Mercer. Brian Jacques. Born in Liverpool, England on June 15 th , 1939.
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RedWall Abbey By Brian Jacques Miles Mercer
Brian Jacques • Born in Liverpool, England on June 15th, 1939. • At the age of ten he was given a class project to write a short story about animals. He wrote on about a bird cleaning a crocodiles teeth and the teacher could not believe what she read was done by a ten year old. He was pronounced as a liar. • After school he worked as a seamen, then later becoming a playwright.
Overview • How the series took off. • Why I choose a book set for a younger demographic. • The themes: • Death • Rising to the challenge • Good vs Evil
Style • Jacques writes in a very descriptive style, he tried to paint the pictures as vivid as possible so the children could see the scene in their imagination. • All characters are animals, but these animals are very humanized. • Medieval style. • The keeps and feasts as well as the ancient weaponry.
Why I choose Jacques • When I was young I stumbled upon the book series RedWall. • Instantly I fell in love with the series spending all day reading. • This led to my first writing (100pg) about the same characters Jacques wrote about, and my newfound love for writing. • I was 12 at the time, but the books have stuck with me.
How it got big • Jacques was not a famous writer when he first wrote RedWall. • He was a milkman that wrote it for school children. • His old english teacher read it, then showed it to a publisher without telling Jacques. The book became huge. • Another five books followed the first one.
The themes: death • Jacques focuses a lot on death, not skipping over it despite it being a children’s book. • The battles are descriptive as well as the death scenes. • When Matthias recovers the great sword of Martin from the evil snake Asmodeus, Squire Julian warns him not to consider it magical, but to see it has only one function: causing death. • This theme echoes throughout the entire series.
Rising to the challenge • Jacques stories usually included an unlikely hero, an underdog. • This style of writing relates most to the children, giving them someone to root for. • The champion Mathias was a smaller sized mouse, but went on the quest nonetheless to help RedWall.
Good vs evil • In every book of the series there is a conflict between the forces of good and the forces of evil. • Some of Jacques’ characters cross the line in between, but mostly it is a fight between the two sides • Ex: Deyna is a good creature brought up among evil, and returns to being good. • Ex: Veil Sixclaw is the exact opposite.
Carnivores = evil • The evil snake Asmodeus is considered to a usual carnivore, but Jacques depicts his character very strongly. • The constant hissing of his own name and the evil pale eyes builds the snake up as the books main villain. • Asmodeus does not kill to survive, he loves when smaller animal cross over his path. • This is another aspect of good vs evil, where evil must be destroyed.
Conclusion • Reading these series in my childhood lead me to want to pursue writing and create a beautiful written world like Jacques. • He was a wonderful writer, and like his characters, an unlikely one due to his humble job as a milkman. • Jacques lived his life to please children, and was a patron of his school until he finally passed away on Feb. 5 2011.
