Written by English author Richard Adams, Watership Down is a classic story of adventure and survival, told through the eyes of a community of rabbits, who set off in search of a new home when they fear the imminent destruction of their warren.

Following several rejections, Adams' first novel was finally published in November 1972, by Rex Collings Ltd of London. The epic tale won a multitude of literary awards, including the prestigious Carnegie Medal and the Guardian Prize.

 

How did Watership Down begin?

Adams was born in Newbury, Berkshire, in May 1920. Growing up in the rural community of Wash Common, he led an isolated childhood, spending much of his time exploring his surroundings and developing a lifelong love of wildlife, nature and animals.

He studied modern history at Worcester College, Oxford, before joining the British Army in July 1940. He served in Europe, Palestine and the Far East, before leaving the armed forces in 1946.

Later, he joined the civil service, working for the Ministry of Housing and Local Government, while writing stories in his leisure time. He had married Elizabeth Acland in September 1949 and his stories were originally to entertain their daughters, Juliet and Rosamond.

His love of animals was the basis for his stories, including his first novel, Watership Down. It began as a story he narrated for his daughters on a car journey. As they were driving from London to Stratford-upon-Avon to the theatre, the children demanded their dad tell them a story.

He began the impromptu tale with the words, “Once upon a time, there were two rabbits called Hazel and Fiver.”

It was totally improvised, but his daughters loved it so much that they insisted he must write it down - a task that took 18 months.

 

Characters and plot

Adams called the book Watership Down, based on the hill in north Hampshire, England, near where he grew up. Although the characters were anthropomorphised rabbits, the action wasn't transposed to a human environment.

Instead, they lived in their natural habitat, where there was a complex community. The rabbits had their own language, culture, proverbs and mythology.

A young rabbit called Fiver was a clairvoyant, who had a terrifying vision of the imminent destruction of the rabbits' home, Sandleford warren, but when he and his brother, Hazel, tried to convince the chief rabbit that they must evacuate, he failed to take action.

Fiver, Hazel and nine other rabbits who believed the premonition, set out on their own to find a new home. Hazel became the group's leader, while Bigwig and Silver, two former members of the warren's military, the Owsla, became their protectors.

They had many adventures as they travelled across England, eventually finding Watership Down, which matched Fiver's vision of a perfect home. However, unable to find a single female rabbit, they realised their warren wouldn't survive if they couldn't breed.

They find another warren, Efrafa, which is run like a police state. A doe named Hyzenthlay wishes to escape and persuades some of her friends to flee to Watership Down as well, but as they settle into their new warren, a party from Efrafa arrives to wage war and recapture them.

After a fight for survival, a farm dog chases away the Efrafa invaders and the Watership Down warren is eventually able to continue peacefully.

 

Realistic themes

While Watership Down was essentially a children's novel, some of its themes were darkly realistic. Adams had read a non-fiction book, The Private Life of the Rabbit, written by 1950s naturalist Ronald Lockley, which described the real-life complex society of a rabbit warren.

Lockley studied rabbits in the wild for four years for the British Nature Conservancy, after an outbreak of the fatal rabbit disease, myxomatosis.

There was a scene in Watership Down about the spread of the horror disease, and Adams based a lot of the fictional rabbits' interactions on the data compiled by Lockley. The two of them became friends, based on their shared interest in wildlife.

 

Critical reception

Watership Down was given glowing reviews by the critics, who described the engaging characters and fast-paced action as "speaking to children".

It was labelled a "big adventure story" with moments of great tension that had the readers checking on the next page to make sure everything turned out okay before they dared to carry on reading.

There was also a great deal of speculation that the book contained hidden themes and was far more than just a children's story. Endlessly analysed, it has been described as an allegory for both Christianity and communism.

However, after Adams died in December 2016, at the age of 96, his daughters were interviewed by the press and refuted any suggestion of any mysterious "true meaning" of Watership Down.

They were adamant that it was "just a story about rabbits". Rosamond was bemused by some of the suggestions after receiving fans' letters in the post. They even asked if Hazel had been an allegory of Jesus Christ.

Although it was heartening that people connected with the story, she said it "cut no ice" with their father, who would exclaim, "Rubbish!"

 

Animal welfare

His love of animals led Adams to support many animal welfare causes throughout his life. In 2011, he joined politicians and celebrities to support a campaign by Cruelty Free International against the trade of catching primates in the wild for laboratory research.

He joined the likes of actor and comedian Ricky Gervais and rock guitarist Brian May of Queen in demanding that the UK ended its involvement in the trade.

An obituary in CFI described him as a "lifelong defender of animals" and highlighted his 1977 best-selling novel, The Plague Dogs, about the ethics of animal experiments, telling the grim story from the eyes of two dogs who escaped from a laboratory.

Adams was president of the RSPCA in the 1980s.

 

Film and TV series

Such was the popularity of Watership Down that it was made into an animated film in 1978, with the theme song, Bright Eyes, recorded by Art Garfunkel, becoming a number one chart hit.

The film featured the voices of John Hurt and Richard Briers as Hazel and Fiver and was an immediate success. Parents taking their children to the cinema expecting to see a cartoon about cute fluffy bunnies had a shock when they realised the story was perhaps more suitable for adults, with its gritty plots.

In 2018, a new four-episode mini-series of Watership Down made its debut on Netflix and the BBC. The one-hour episodes cost a total of £20 million and the series received generally positive reviews.

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