By: Janine Stankus, Staff Reporter 10/24/2008
Brian Jacques, international bestseller, has out-written many children’s authors, and he still loves producing books. “I still find it’s a pleasure,” he said, “the minute it becomes work it’s no good.”
Jacques traveled “across the pond” from his home in Liverpool, UK to appear at the Merritt Bookstore on Oct. 16, the first stop on a brief U.S. book tour promoting his latest release, “Doomwyte.” People flocked in from all over to hear the famous author speak and hoards of children purchased books for the author to sign. “Doomwyte” is number 20 in the “Redwall” series, which began in 1986 when the first book was published. The stories depict a fantasy world in which forest animals residing at the Redwall Abbey set out on various adventures. The series is a major hit amongst readers young and old–it has spawned three picture books, a graphic novel, and even an opera.
Jacques knew at a young age where his talent lay. Inventing stories was his passion. “It was something I was good at, even as a child,” he said. “The things you’re good at, you want to do.”
He told his Merritt audience a personal story about a stern schoolmaster who gave his class a fiction-writing assignment. When Jacques turned in a story about a bird that cleans a crocodile’s teeth, the instructor accused him of copying it. “Boys of 10 cannot write like this,” he said, according to Jacques. When Jacques refused to admit that he had copied the story, he received a cruel lashing. Upon returning to his desk, he thought to himself, “That’s it, I’m an author, and that little monkey up there doesn’t know it yet!”
Jacques’ knack for storytelling is readily apparent in his ebullient speech and mannerisms. The “Redwall” series subsists on the ability of the author’s imagination to draw him completely into the characters’ world. According to him, for the three-to-four months it takes him to complete a novel, he resides at Redwall. “I’m not stuck in the middle of elections and stock markets and doom and gloom,” he said. For that time, he has the privilege of living in a far favorable fantasy world.
For Jacques, even the inhabitants of his fictional realm are preferable to their real life equivalents. “Animals,” he said, “are better people than people.” If an animal is going to attack you, it warns you, unlike human beings who will smile at you while putting a knife in your ribs,” he pointed out. Some of his animal characters do however rely on inspiration from the author’s actual encounters. “Some I invent; some I met; some I worked with; some I hated; some I loved ” he said.
The “Redwall” series was conceived at the Royal Wavertree School for the Blind in Liverpool, where Jacques began writing stories for the students. He had decided that he didn’t approve of the books being donated to the school, as they were mostly about “now and here,” full of messy, discomforting themes like divorce and teen angst. So one day he sat down and wrote “Redwall,” on pen and paper, the old fashioned way (a practice which he continues to this day). A friend, Alan Durband (who taught a young Paul McCartney and George Harrison) got his hands on Jacques’ story and sent it secretly to his own publisher. Jacques was immediately called to London and offered a contract, and thus the 20-book series was born.
Jacques success is not limited to the Redwall series–he has also written a series called “Castaways of the Flying Dutchman,” inspired by his experiences as a merchant seaman. He’s also published a variety of individual novels and even a few plays. He has been approached by directors (Stephen Spielberg among them) about making a movie, but Jacques seemed hesitant about the idea about exposing his carefully crafted stories to the whims of Hollywood. “All I want to see is children reading my books,” he said.
The scene at the Merritt Bookstore could not have disappointed him, in that case. Almost every child in attendance clutched a copy of one of his stories. Millbrook was the first of only eleven stops in the entire country that Jacques will make to promote “Doomwyte,” the adventurous tale that follows the Redwallers on a quest for an ancient treasure.
Families came from places as far as Rochester, Albany, New Jersey, and Connecticut to see Jacques in Millbrook. “We have a history of doing great events with children’s’ authors,” said Merritt Bookstore owner, Scott Meyer, “they know that we’ll do a good job.” Jacques’s appearance at Merritt was a testament to the independent bookstore’s reputation far beyond the village. “Authors and publishers think we’re something special,” asserted Meyer.
Those interested in purchasing a copy of a Brian Jacques’s book should visit the Merritt Bookstore at 57 Front St. in Millbrook. The store will also be welcoming acclaimed author Laurie Halse Anderson whose latest release, “Chains,” has been named a finalist for the National Book Award. Anderson will speak on Nov. 6 at 6:45 p.m.