Below is the complete list of Brian Jacques books in order. For each series, the chronological reading order is the same as the order of publication.
Publication Order of Redwall Books
Publication Order of Tribes of Redwall Books
Publication Order of A Tale of Redwall Books
Publication Order of Redwall Picture Books
Publication Order of Redwall Non-Fiction Books
Publication Order of Flying Dutchman Books
Publication Order of Urso Brunov Picture Books
Publication Order of Short Story Collections Books
About Brian Jacques
Brian Jacques was an English author best known as the creator of Redwall, the beloved children’s fantasy series set in a world of talking animals, abbeys, woodlands, seafaring villains, heroic quests, and lavish feasts. Born in Liverpool in 1939, Jacques brought an unusually strong storyteller’s voice to children’s fiction, shaped by oral performance, working-class humor, sea stories, songs, dialect, and a deep affection for courage in unlikely figures. His books are often remembered for mice, badgers, hares, otters, rats, foxes, and stoats, but their lasting appeal comes from the way he made adventure feel communal, sensory, and morally vivid.
Jacques did not follow a conventional literary path. He left school young and worked a wide range of jobs before becoming a full-time writer, including time connected with the merchant sea, trucking, railway work, stand-up comedy, and radio. That varied life fed directly into his fiction. His pirates, wandering performers, cooks, soldiers, travelers, and rogues often sound as if they have stepped out of a long tradition of spoken tales rather than a carefully insulated fantasy workshop. Dialogue in his books is full of accents, comic rhythms, boasts, insults, riddles, and songs.
Redwall began as a story written for children at the Royal Wavertree School for the Blind in Liverpool, where Jacques had worked as a milkman. Because he was writing for children who could not rely on illustrations, his descriptions became especially rich: food is fragrant and abundant, halls are warm, forests are alive with sound, and danger has strong physical presence. That origin helps explain one of the most recognizable features of his work. Redwall is not only a place on a map; it is a sensory home.
The first novel, Redwall, was published in 1986 and introduced the Abbey, the young mouse Matthias, and the threat of Cluny the Scourge. From there, Jacques built a large series that moved across generations rather than following one continuous hero. Books such as Mossflower, Mattimeo, Martin the Warrior, The Long Patrol, Taggerung, and Rakkety Tam explore different eras, heroes, villains, and regions of the Redwall world. Martin the Warrior, both as character and legend, became one of the central figures tying the mythology together.
Jacques’s fiction is built on clear moral contrasts, but it is not thin. His villains can be theatrical and brutal, his heroes frightened or untested, and his communities vulnerable to greed, violence, betrayal, and hunger. The books often ask what makes someone worthy of trust: birth and size matter far less than loyalty, bravery, generosity, and the willingness to defend others. Small animals can carry epic responsibility, while large or powerful figures are judged by how they use strength.
Beyond Redwall, Jacques wrote the Castaways of the Flying Dutchman trilogy, a seafaring adventure sequence inspired by the legend of the ghost ship. He also wrote shorter works and continued broadcasting, but Redwall remained the defining achievement of his career. Brian Jacques died in 2011, leaving a fantasy world that still feels unusually hospitable and dangerous at once. His legacy rests on the rare gift of making readers feel they have not simply read about an abbey in the woods, but visited it, eaten at its tables, feared for its defenders, and heard its songs carried through the trees.