Jacques, Brian

Redwall

A series of books featuring cute looking woodland creatures might seem like the preserve of pre-school and early primary children, don’t let that fool you though. The books don’t follow particular characters, instead they are centred on the titular Redwall Abbey and the creatures who inhabit it. If you put aside their anthropomorphic nature and instead focus on the characters themselves, you find a rich selections of heroes and rogues, from church mice and badgers on one side to wild cats and adders on the other. The plots of the later books do become a little repetitive, but with 22 books that’s not massively surprising and despite this the quality of the storytelling remains high. One of the nicest aspects of the Redwall books is the gender balance, the female characters are equally as likely to take part in the battles and quests as their male counterparts, a refreshing change from some works.