Jacques did not become a published author until he was in his late forties. Before then, he had worked a long list of jobs, until he finally settled on a steady career in radio. Jacques's parents were Irish Catholic immigrants to Liverpool, England, whose son grew up in humble but loving surroundings at home and around the ocean docks. Fortunately for the young Jacques, his father, a truck driver, had a healthy appreciation for literature, which he passed along to his son. Through him, Jacques learned to love books by such authors as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Edgar Rice Burroughs.
Jacques composed his first tale for an assignment at St. John's School when he was ten years old, but he was immediately discouraged by his teacher, who felt that his story about a crocodile and the bird who cleaned its teeth was too good for a child to have written. The teacher called the young Jacques a liar when the boy insisted that he had, indeed, authored the story. Though the event was a disquieting experience, it brought Jacques to the realization that he had some talent.
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