![]() ![]() ![]() Son of Evelyn Adams, a country doctor, and his wife, Lilian (nee Button), Richard was born in Newbury, and brought up in Berkshire. Once published, its evocation of the English countryside (the Downs near Adams’s home), combined with its detailed descriptions of rabbit society – much taken from RM Lockley’s The Private Life of the Rabbit (1964) – which includes a sharply observed study of leadership through the characters of Fiver, Bigwig and Hazel, made it as much a political allegory as a simple adventure story. ![]() However, Adams himself did not categorise it as a children’s book. The origins of Watership Down lay in stories Adams wrote down to entertain his daughters on long car journeys, based on his observation of rabbits from the train window on his daily commute to work. Its mass success and cult status was furthered by its subsequent adaptation in 1978 to animated cartoon film, with a soundtrack that included the hit single Bright Eyes. At one point, it held the record for the highest sum paid for paperback rights. From the moment of publication, it was widely hailed as an exceptional title and almost instantly became a bestseller. As a manuscript of more than 200,000 words, it was turned down by all of the major publishers and many of the smaller ones, before Rex Collings, a small independent company, picked it up. The story of the publication of Watership Down is an example of the quirky nature of publishing. ![]()
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