Read more about General Woundwort at: Wikipedia Official Site: Richard Adams Watership Down is a classic heroic fantasy novel, written by English author Richard Adams, about a small group of rabbit. Although the animals in the story live in their natural environment, they are anthropomorphised, possessing their own culture, language (Lapine), proverb, poetry, and mythology. Evoking epic themes, the novel recounts the rabbits' odyssey as they escape the destruction of their warren to seek a place in which to establish a new home, encountering perils and temptations along the way. The novel takes its name from the rabbits' destination, Watership Down, a hill in the north of Hampshire, England, near the area where Adams grew up. The story is based on a collection of tales that Adams told to his young children to pass the time on trips to the countryside. Published in 1972, Watership Down was Richard Adams' first novel, and is by far his most successful to date. Although it was initially rejected by 13 publishers before eventually being accepted by Rex Collings Ltd, Watership Down has never been out of print, and was the recipient of several prestigious awards. It is Penguin Books' best-selling novel of all time, and has been adapted into an acclaimed classic film and a television series. Watership Down began as a story Richard Adams told to his two daughters, Juliet and Rosamond, during long car journeys; in an interview, Adams said he "began telling the story of the rabbits ... improvised off the top of my head, as we were driving along." He based the struggles of the animals in the story on the struggles he and his friends encountered during the Battle of Oosterbeek, Arnhem, the Netherlands in 1944. His daughters insisted he write it down—"they were very, very persistent"—and though he initially delayed, he eventually began writing in the evenings, and completed it 18 months later. |