Castaways of the Flying Dutchman

Brian Jacques

Feb 2008 · Recorded Books · Narrated by Brian Jacques and A Full Cast

About this audiobook

Author of the beloved Redwall series, Brian Jacques is one of the most popular fantasy authors in the world, with over forty million books in print. This New York Times best-seller will impress listeners with its original twist on the legend of the ghost ship, the Flying Dutchman. The Flying Dutchman is cursed to sail the seven seas for all eternity without rest. The two innocent castaways, a young mute boy named Neb and his dog, Denmark, are washed overboard from the hoary yacht and end up on the seashore of a cozy, yet endangered English village. With the help of the townsfolk, Neb and Denmark solve riddles and search for the buried secrets that can save the village and its people. A brilliant departure from the Redwall series, this novel will undoubtedly satisfy longtime Jacques fans and newcomers alike. This audiobook features a wonderful narration by the author and a full cast at the BBC studios. He combines ample measures of suspense, fantasy, and mystery, of poetry and great poignancy, and the emotional impact is powerful and unforgettable. --Lloyd Alexander, Newbery Medal-winning author

About the author

Brian Jacques was born in Liverpool, England on June 15, 1939. After he finished St. John's School at the age of fifteen, he became a merchant seaman and travelled to numerous ports including New York, Valparaiso, San Francisco, and Yokohama. Tiring of the lonely life of a sailor, he returned to Liverpool where he worked as a railway fireman, a longshoreman, a long-distance truck driver, a bus driver, a boxer, a police constable, a postmaster, and a stand-up comic. During the sixties, he was a member of the folk singing group The Liverpool Fishermen. He wrote both poetry and music, but he began his writing career in earnest as a playwright. His three stage plays Brown Bitter, Wet Nellies, and Scouse have been performed at the Everyman Theatre. He wrote Redwall for the children at the Royal Wavertree School for the Blind in Liverpool, where he delivered milk as a truck driver. His style of writing is very descriptive, because of the nature of his first audience, for whom he painted pictures with words, so that they could see them in their imaginations. After Alan Durband, his childhood English teacher, read Redwall, he showed it to a publisher without telling Jacques. This event led to a contract for the first five books in the Redwall series. He also wrote the Castaways of the Flying Dutchman series. He died on February 5, 2011.