For the past ten years Brian Jacques has been having his successful novels in the 'Redwall' series published. The most recent are 'The Pearls of Lutra' (Hutchinson) and 'The Great Redwall Feast' (£12.99 Bodley Head), the latter being an illustrated poem aimed at a younger audience than his other books.

     Regarded in America as one of the top children's writers he regularly tours both there and Britain. When I caught up with him he was captivating an audience at a local junior school, showing off a talent as an entertainer honed through years of being a stand-up comedian and being in a folk band.

     Afterwards, between hair-raising tales of touring America, I asked him a few questions about his work.

     Did you want to write Fantasy tales when you were a child?

     Oh I did write, it was all I was good at, at school. Other than perhaps swimming and boxing. I'm not too keen on the name Fantasy for my books though, I prefer just to call them Good Yarns.

     Before I started the 'Redwall' books I wrote plays for the stage, radio and T.V. I also did articles for magazines and a newspaper column. Then I got my program on Radio Merseyside. Every year I did a charity collection for a local school for the blind. When I visited the children there I'd tell them stories that became 'Redwall'. The most important thing a writer must do is learn to paint pictures with words.

     I work out the story when I'm walking my dog around the local park. Then I either write it down or type it on the big old manual typewriter I've got. It takes about four months, during the summer.

     I next asked him about his popularity in America.

     American children seem to read more, perhaps that's because they don't watch so much T.V. because it's so awful. There are a number of 'Redwall' websites which are great and some MUCK's. They're Multiple User Character Kingdoms, I think, and people log on as mice, rabbits and the other animals from my books. They're even on the ciriculum at some colleges but I'm not sure if that's a good thing. I was put off Dickens by being forced to read it at school.

     Down in the Bible-belt they tried to ban my collection 'Seven Strange and Ghostly Tales' for the usual Satanic reason. We were going to fight against it until we discovered it actually increased our sales in those areas.

     Then I asked about his plans for the future.

     I do have plans occasionally about different books, but I've got plenty of 'Redwall' ideas at the moment. Which is a good thing as it's what my publishers and the kids are clamoring for.

     They're going to be making an Animated TV series in Canada from 'Redwall' to be followed by a film. It's being made by Nelvania and the character origination is being done by my brilliant cover artist, 'Fangorn'. I'm going to be doing the music for the series. My folk band often backed the Scaffold back in the early 'seventies.

     In Delaware, they're adapting 'Redwall' into a Children's Opera. I'm a big fan of Opera, I play it on my radio show and would have liked to have been a Tenor.

     So far I've refused to let them do 'Redwall' as a computer game. I'm not keen on that, though they are working on a CD-ROM of Redwall Abbey. You'll be able to track around and through it and click on objects to find out more information and the history and characters.

     As for the rest of the world, I'm published in fifteen countries in nine different languages, just starting to be brought out in Japanese. So I hope that my stories will remain as actual books on the shelves of shops and libraries into the next century.

     What would be nice, when the film comes out, is to have the premier at Graumans Chinese Theatre in Hollywood. We'd have to do paw prints in the concrete pavement.

Back to Zinery Interviews TOC