"I’ve never read a better reflection on what it means to be human than this book about rabbits."
It’s baffling that this story is considered children’s book. Watership Down is about a group of rabbits looking for a home after their warren is destroyed. Around this simple, iconic adventure plot Adams weaves a narrative about integrity and justice, shot through with idealism and longing for a better society. I’ve never read a better reflection on what it means to be human than this book about rabbits.
Like many, I first learned about suffering and death from Watership Down, but I also learned about the comfort of friendship and community. And I learned about the beauty of the British countryside. I grew up in the US, Madagascar, Kenya, Yemen and Morocco so as a child my only familiarity with cowslips, changing seasons, the breeze in the grass on the high Down on a clear day - was through from Adams’s book. There’s a Welsh word, hiraeth, which loosely translates to longing for a home you’ve never had. As a lonely child Watership Down made me feel hiraeth for the green British countryside, populated by its velvet-eared rabbit characters with all their fierce loyalty and flaws. It still does, just as the end of the book, Hazel’s final transformation, still pierces the heart.
A book that resonates as vividly today as it did nearly half a century ago, this keepsake Oneworld Classic edition showcases more than twenty sumptuous, evocative paintings from Aldo Galli, an illustrator chosen by Richard Adams himself. It is the first full-colour illustrated edition of a celebrated modern classic and international bestseller.
Stunning and compulsive are two words that best describe the story of Fiver, of Hazel and the rabbit warren full of family and friends. Rejected by most publishers before eventually being snapped up by Rex Collings in 1972, it was an instant hit and has since sold millions of copies the world over. 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.
| Primary Genre | Literary Fiction |
