User blog comment:LordTBT/News:RIP Brian Jacques, 1939-2011/@comment-67.236.150.52-20110213021423

How do you pick up the threads of an old life? How do you go on, when in your heart, you begin to understand, there is no going back? There are some things that time cannot mend. Some hurts that go too deep…that has taken hold.-Lord of The Rings. This quote described perfectly the pain that I felt when I learned of the bad news that my favorite author of all time died last weekend of a heart attack. It felt as a part of me deep down died. And even days after hearing the tragic news, my heart is still aching. Brain Jacques was born in Liverpool, England, on 15 June 1939 to James (a truck driver) and Ellen.[3] He grew up in the area of the Liverpool docks. He is known by his middle name 'Brian' because both his father and one of his brothers are also called James. His father loved literature, and passed it to him, having him read stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Edgar Rice Burroughs. Jacques showed a knack for writing at an early age. At age 10, he was given an assignment of writing a story about animals, and he wrote about a bird that cleaned a crocodile's teeth. His teacher could not believe that anyone could write that well at age 10. He was called a liar and caned by a teacher for refusing to say he copied the story. He had always loved to write, but it was only then that he realized he had a talent for writing. He attended St. John's school until the age of 15 when he left school (as was the tradition at the time) and set out to find adventure as a sea merchant sailor. His book Redwall was written for the children of the Royal Wavertree School for the Blind, whom he refers to as his "special friends". [3] He first met them when he delivered milk there as a truck driver. He began to spend time with the children, and eventually began to write stories for them. This accounts for the very descriptive style of the novel and the ones to follow. His work gained acclaim when Alan Durband, a friend (who also taught Paul McCartney and George Harrison), showed it to his (Durband's) own publisher without telling Jacques. Durband told his publishers: "This is the finest children's tale I've ever read, and you'd be foolish not to publish it". Soon after, Jacques was summoned to London to meet with the publishers, who gave him a contract to write the next five books in the series. Thus begin one of the greatest children’s book series ever written. Over the course of a little over 40 years, Brain made the best selling series, “Redwall.” with over 20 million copies sold in over 29 different languages. How did a book for the blind become a hit among the world? This is the brief story of how I cam to know the world of Redwall and how it impacted my life and changed me forever. I remember my first encounter of this magical world. I was eight years old on that peaceful Sunday morning and I saw a commercial for the first season of Redwall on PBS Kids. So I decided to watch it and see if it was any good at all. That day changed my life forever. Every Sunday after that I got up and watched it. I was so into it that I couldn’t stop talking about the show for weeks on end. But then it ended when the station stopped showing it after the 2nd season. I felt this emptiness inside of me that was known by adults as depression. Then I found out a month later that the show was actually based off of a book series. So I got a copy of the book Redwall and started reading it. My favorite characters in Redwall were Matthias, Cornflower, and Martin the Warrior. I couldn’t get enough of this wonder series. I remember reading The Legend of Luke in the hallways of the YMCA in Ashley, Mossflower out in the corn field underneath a big oak tree, and reading Martin the Warrior as a bed time story every night until I finished it. I would spend hours at a time reading the books and then I would spend time making up my own stories of this world that seemed to be realer then the real world. I entered my middle school and high school years with this series as my number one series. I run for Cross Country and Track. And I am in wrestling. During this time in sports I gained the nickname, Matthias Martin for my hardcore will of never giving up and pushing myself past my limits. I wanted to write him a letter for advice and to share with him some of my stories and see what he thought of them. But I never got around to sending it out and now I feel regret for not sending it out. And I was going to see him the next time that he came to America. But alas it wasn’t meant to be. Redwall also played an impact with me and God. There is a church camp at Lake James in Angola Indiana. One year I went to the wilderness camp there and we would camp for a week out in the woods. On the Tuesday, our leader gave us a pile of staffs and told us to pick one out to keep. I picked one that needed a lot of work on. For the next week I sanded it down, put a finish on it and then I carved the name, Redwall into the middle of it. I still use that staff when I go hiking and when I go on mission trips. And I also used to pretend that it was a sword and use it out in the fields and pretend that I was in one of the stories that Brain made or one of the many that I made. I remembered reading Ephesians, 6:10-20 on the day that I became a Christian. This passage talked about how you should wear the armor of God and wield the sword of the spirit. From that day on for about 4 years, every time that I stood in the pews, I would pretend that I was wearing the armor of God. But the armor and sword that I was wearing in my mind was that of the great Martin the Warrior. And every time that I think of God and heaven (for the next few years), I would think of the rolling flatlands, the roaring seas with the famous mountain fortress, Salamandastron standing watch over the waves, from the cold flat Northlands, to the blazing hot Southlands, to the quiet peaceful forests of Mossflower country, up the dusty path and to the main gates of the famous Abbey. When I die, I want to ask God if I can see all of it from Salamandastron west stand and north up to Redwall.

I remember the day that he died. For some strange reason I haven’t read any of the books for a few months. I was talking to my best friend on the internet and doing homework. That night I had a dream in which it was winter. The snow covered the firm ground. The wind kicked up wisps of snow as the air glisten. I was walking by a lake that was covered with ice. The ice started to break up and then I was a figure fighting to stay on top of the ice. I ran out onto the ice and then I saw the pike. It was a huge fish, the biggest that I ever seen. Then I felt cold steel at my side. I look down and see that I was wearing the sword of Redwall. There was a battle and I don’t remember if I saved that beast’s life but I do remember that my dream ended with me staring at the sword in my hands as everything faded to darkness. Redwall played an important part in my life and I would not know who I would be today if it wasn't for it. Redwall taught me that no matter how big or small you are, you can do the impossible. It taught me to dream big and to never give up and to never give in to the bad pressure of this cruel world. I want to personally thank you Brain for your stories. They have touched so many lives and will touch so many more for generations to come. My prayers go out to his family in this time of grief and sadness.

Slumber through twilight, sleep through the dawn, Bright in our memory from first light each morn, Rest through the winter beneath the soft snow, And in the springing, when bright blossoms show. Warriors brave, who gave all you could give, Offered your lives so that others would live. No one can tell what my heart longed to say When I had to leave here, and you had to stay. - The Long Patrol. R.I.P. Brain Jacques