Of mice and moles

Ask most adults to name an author of British fantasy-adventures for kids, and the first name you'll hear is J.K. Rowling, or possibly J.R.R. Tolkien. But millions of kids would mention a name less widely known to adults: the swashbuckling Brian Jacques.

Brian Jacques (pronounced ''Jakes") of Liverpool is the author of the 17 (so far) action-packed Redwall novels, in which sword-wielding mice, badgers, squirrels, rabbits, and shrews defend the ancient Redwall Abbey of Mossflower Country against the depredations of evil stoats, rats, ermine, and suchlike villains. Unlikely as it sounds, these books have a fanatical following.

''There was always something about these books," said Betsey Detwiler, owner of Buttonwood Books in Cohasset. ''Kids were crazy to read them, they would struggle to read them on their own, and a lot of them would learn to read because of them." Redwall novels are long -- 350 to 400 pages -- and while critics marveled that kids would read the doorstop Harry Potter novels, it passed unnoticed that they have been reading Redwall since 1986.

The books are aimed at ages 9-15, though they appear to be about right for those 10-11. Translated into 16 languages, including braille, there are millions of Redwall books in print, according to publisher Philomel, a division of Penguin. ''Rakkety Tam," the newest in the series, hit number five on The New York Times children's bestseller list. There are audio versions, read by Jacques. An animated Redwall has been running recently on 'GBH Kids, a cable TV channel. There's even an opera, ''The Legend of Redwall Abbey," produced by OperaDelaware in 1998.

In style and content, the ''Redwall" novels combine elements of Patrick O'Brian, Homer's ''Illiad," J.R.R. Tolkien, and Kenneth Grahame's ''The Wind in the Willows." The mythical Mossflower country is closely modeled on rural England, with the flavor of North Wales, Scotland, and the borderlands -- full of castles, mountains, forests, and rivers. The characters speak in heavy dialect, such as Molespeak, and break into swatches of bardic poetry. (One proud mole says, ''Et bee's a gurt honner to bee ee moler, loike oi!")

Sixty-five-year-old Brian Jacques, bald and bearded and dressed in black, has the deep and powerful voice of the singer, monologist, and comedian he was before he became a writer. (He also has a BBC radio show, ''Jakestown.") An interview during his recent New England book tour turned out to be a kind of jolly impromptu performance. He does not do readings, which he likens to ''watching paint dry" (though he signs books), but something like theater from his world and that of Redwell. (Booksellers are advised before appearances to have enough space for him to move around, in case he needs to lunge with an imaginary sword.) There doesn't seem to be a clear line between the two, and he is as vivid and colorful as any of his characters.

The idea of moles and squirrels as valiant warriors for good may seem comic to adults, but the dramatic situations in Redwall are as life-and-death as anything in Tolkien. And there's always a villain -- in ''Rakkety Tam," he's a dastardly wolverine named Gulo the Savage. Rakkety Tam MacBurl and his friend Wild Doogy Plumm, two valiant squirrel-soldiers, and a storied army of hares called the Long Patrol Regiment are all that stand in Gulo's way.

''I try to keep my compass points in view," Jacques said, in an accent that sounds half-Irish, half-Liverpool. ''When I'm about two-thirds of the way through a book, I'll get an idea that would make a good book. I'll keep it in my head, then I start to think, 'Where's the threat going to come from this time? From the north where the lands of ice and snow are? Or the lands beyond the sunset where it's tropical? In the setting it has to be, 'Once upon a time, long ago and far away, beneath some blue forgotten sky in a silent forest. . .' It's a place where no man's hand has ever set foot. It's always a paw or a claw."

And there's always real evil and real good, and sometimes real tragedy, in his books. There's swordplay, and evildoers are slain -- and sometimes the good die, too. ''Otherwise there's no story, is there?" he said. ''There has to be a threat or a quest. Otherwise you're stuck in a Walt Disney world, with everybody singing 'Bibbity-bobbity boo,' with singing teapots and God knows what."

Liverpool accents
Jacques grew up near the Liverpool docks, in an Irish immigrant family. Ending school at 15, he became a merchant seaman, dock worker, bus and truck driver, to name a few of his jobs, but he and his family loved books and music as well. ''I like the good old yarns," he said. ''My dad would say to me, 'You want to read that, lad; that's a good yarn.' " In the 1960s he and his two brothers, along with their father and friends, performed traditional music in Irish pubs in Liverpool.

''I was the spokesman," he said. ''They were all great singers but didn't talk to the public. So I would get up and say, 'Good evening, we're the Liverpool Fishermen, and this is a little song we used to sing at my mother's knee, or some other low joint,' and carry on like that, 'a little song titled, ''Don't Go Down to the Shrimp Boats, Mum -- Dad's Coming Home with the Crabs.' " He began to add his own songs to the classics. ''I started working up a comic routine and writing monologues -- you know the monologues of Robert Service? -- I wrote 'The Hanging of Filthy Jake,' virtually rewrote the Old Testament, all in a Liverpool accent."

Over the years he branched out into poetry and plays for stage, TV, and radio. In 1986 he tried his hand at a novel, ''Redwall," which proved to be a hit with kids and the start of the series. Matthias, a brave young mouse, leads the defense of the abbey from the attack of Cluny the Scourge, a giant evil one-eyed rat leading a sinister army of rats, ferrets, weasels, and stoats. With many permutations and new heroes, many of whom fondly remember their predecessors, this basic plot remains the enduring model in book after book.

The dialogues -- mostly in versions of British regional dialect -- are often difficult and full of words most American kids wouldn't know, such as ''claymore," ''pommel," ''broom" (the plant), ''boyos," ''carcase," ''grapnells." But the language is clearly no serious obstacle to kids; in fact, it seems to delight them. ''A lot of adults get boggled by this," Jacques said, ''when they look at the Molespeak. But the kids write to me and speak to me in Molespeak."

''They are interesting bridge books," said Leonard Marcus, children's book editor of Parenting magazine, ''rooted in animal fantasy but also pretty ambitious works that stretch a child's endurance. He writes with gusto and a love of narrative -- his stories whiz along, with bad characters who are really bad and good characters who are really good."

In encounters with kids, which he says he greatly enjoys, Jacques gets certain questions over and over, such as: Why does he write about animals? (''Because animals make better people than people.") Or why do the good characters -- such as Rose of Noonvale, the only love of legendary Martin the Warrior (both mice) -- sometimes die?

''That isn't in some kids' agendas," he said. '' 'I'll tell you,' I say to them, 'my books are about life and death, and it's not always the baddies who get killed. The day will come when someone you really love, your grandmother or granddad, maybe even your mum or dad, will die, won't be there anymore. You can be sad about that -- there's nothing wrong with being sad. But remember that all the good things that person taught you stay with you.' And I always show them this" -- he pulls out the gold chain around his neck, which holds a gold ring -- ''that's my mum's wedding ring. She's always with me. I carry her wisdom, her knowledge, the way she taught me,' you explain to them like that."

Jacques's tour included a stop at Buttonwood Books, where he spoke to a full house of kids and parents. Owner Detwiler said, ''I was surprised how many preteens and teens were here. He has such a rapport with kids, telling lots of corny jokes, which they love. They're right with him. Part of it is motivating them. He encourages them to read and be involved in reading in school. He is charismatic and has a good time being a ham. He feeds off the kids."

Jacques says he is always writing (he uses longhand and then a typewriter). Even after 17 Redwall novels and a separate new series, ''Castaways of the Flying Dutchman," he said he can't imagine slowing down. ''I have a million other projects I want to do," he said. ''I hear about an author having 'the drys.' He thinks he's an author? He should be on checkout at Wal-Mart."

David Mehegan can be reached at mehegan@globe.com.