This event led to a contract for the first five books in the Redwall series, and a dedication to Alan in the front of several Redwall books. Jacques' writing gained acclaim when his childhood English teacher, Alan Durband, read Redwall, and showed it to a publisher without telling Brian. He remains a patron of the school to this day. Because of the nature of his first audience, he made his style of writing as descriptive as possible, painting pictures with words so that the schoolchildren could see them in their imaginations. The Start of Redwallīrian wrote Redwall for the children at the Royal Wavertree School for the Blind in Liverpool, where as a truck driver, he delivered milk. "Scouse" is a slang term for someone from Liverpool, named after the cheap, nearly meatless stew that is a staple in the traditional Liverpool working man's diet. His three stage plays Brown Bitter, Wet Nellies, and Scouse have been performed at the Everyman Theatre. Jacques has written both poetry and music, but he began his writing career in earnest as a playwright. He is married to Sandra, and has twin sons, Paul and Sean. His younger brother, Jimmy, returned to Britain after twelve years.
His older brother, Tony, a carpenter, lived there with his children and grandchildren, until 1998 when he passed away. Both his brothers emigrated to New Zealand. Tiring of the lonely life of a sailor, he returned to Liverpool where he worked as a railway fireman, a longshoreman, a long-distance truck driver, a bus driver, a boxer, a bobby (Police Constable 216D), a postmaster, and a stand-up comic.ĭuring the sixties, when The Beatles put the world spotlight on Liverpool, he and six others including his two brothers, formed a folksinging group known as The Liverpool Fishermen.
He travelled to many far away ports, including New York, Valparaiso, San Francisco, and Yokohama. Alan Durband also taught English to two Beatles, Paul McCartney and George Harrison.Īfter Brian finished school at fifteen, he set out to find adventure as a merchant seaman. John's that Brian met Alan Durband, an English teacher who would more than thirty years later forever change his life. Also at an early age, Brian explored adventure stories by authors such as: It was because of him, I saved seven shillings and sixpence to buy The Iliad and The Odyssey at this dusty used book shop.īrian's interest in poetry soon extended to Wordsworth, Tennyson, and Goldsmith. Thomas introduced the class to poetry and Greek literature. He came to school on a big push bike with the haversack on back.
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