Richard Adams grew up in Berkshire, the son of a country doctor. After an education at Oxford, he spent six years in the army and then went into the Civil Service. He originally began telling the story of Watership Down to his two daughters and they insisted he publish it as a book. It quickly became a huge success with both children and adults, and won the Guardian Children's Fiction Award and the Carnegie Medal in 1972. Richard Adams wrote many novels and short stories, including Shardik and The Plague Dogs. He died in 2016, aged 96.
A treacherous journey and quest for survival - one to pick up, time and time again * The Guardian * Beautifully evoking the Berkshire countryside in poetic language, it is an exciting, moving and powerful novel. * Book Trust * Beautifully written with some of the best characterisation you'll come across in children's literature, it tells the story of a group of rabbits and their will to survive despite human attempts to do otherwise. Full of adventure, humour, excitement and sadness it will enthral as much now as it did when it was first published * LoveReading4Kids *