Brian Jacques was born on June 15 1939 in the Kirkdale area of Liverpool, and grew up in the city’s docklands. His father, a truck driver of French descent, was widely-read, instilling in his son a love of storytelling and in particular the works of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Robert Louis Stevenson and Edgar Rice Burroughs.
Leaving St John’s School at 15, he joined the Merchant Navy as a seaman and travelled far and wide. On his return to Liverpool he worked as a railway fireman, a longshoreman, bus driver, policeman, postmaster and stand-up comedian.
With six others, including his two brothers, Jacques formed a folk group called the Liverpool Fishermen, which was popular in local pubs during the Mersey music boom of the 1960s, and released an album, Swallow the Anchor, in 1971.
In the 1970s Anvil Press published some of his humorous poems and short stories, beginning with Get Yer Wack in 1971. These were followed by Yennoworrameanlike, A Mersey Bible, Scouse with the Lid Off, and finally, in 1979, Jakestown, named after his popular weekly radio show, broadcast for more than 30 years on BBC Radio Merseyside.
He then achieved success as a playwright with an evocation of postwar Liverpool – Brown Bitter, Wet Nellies and Scouse – that was performed at the city’s Everyman Theatre in 1981, when he was the resident writer.
In all Jacques produced more than 20 novels in the “Redwall” series, ending with The Sable Quean (2010) and The Rogue Crew, due to be published later this year. He also wrote the “Castaways of the Flying Dutchman” series and two collections of short stories.
In 2005 he was awarded an honorary doctorate of letters by the University of Liverpool and in 2008 received an honorary fellowship from Liverpool John Moores University.
Brian Jacques is survived by his wife, Liz Crampton, and their two sons.
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