Jacques didn’t start writing the Redwall series until he was middle-aged. Prior to that point, he held numerous jobs in unrelated fields. At one time or another, he was a merchant seaman, truck driver, milkman, standup comedian, postmaster, fireman, and radio show host. This eclectic background implies a respect for the common folk and is reflected in the author’s use of multiple humble species of animals, each of whose unique gifts contributes to the common good.

A native of Liverpool, England, Jacques first conceived the idea for the series while reading to children with blindness at a local school. He found most of the books available for young readers to be unsatisfactory. In his opinion, such reading material contained too much emotional tragedy and too little magic. As a result, Jacques began writing Redwall merely to entertain the students who came to listen to his stories. Because his initial audience consisted of children with blindness, Jacques was careful to use sensory descriptions in Redwall that weren’t confined to sight. This stylistic technique continued through the rest of the series as well.

The world of Redwall revolves around a fictitious abbey of the same name located somewhere in the medieval English countryside.