RedWall Abbey

REDWALL ABBEYBy 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.

QUESTIONS?