Richard Adams

Richard George Adams
Richard Adams reads from Watership Down at exhibition of Aldo Galli paintings in Whitchurch, Hampshire, UK
Born	9 May 1920 (1920-05-09) (age 89) Newbury, Berkshire
Occupation	Novelist
Nationality	English
Notable work(s)	Watership Down
Influences Ronald Lockley

Richard George Adams (born 9 May, 1920) is an English novelist who is best known as the author of Watership Down.

Early years

Adams was born in Newbury, Berkshire on 9 May 1920. He was educated at Horris Hill School from 1926 until 1933. He then went to Bradfield College from 1933 until 1938. In 1938 he went up to Worcester College, Oxford to read Modern History. Shortly after the declaration of war between the UK and Nazi Germany, Adams joined the British Army. He saw action in the heavy fighting at Arnhem in Holland with the British Airborne Army, and he continued to serve until 1946, when he received a class B discharge (which meant that under certain circumstances he could be recalled to duty.)

After his discharge, Adams returned to Worcester to continue his studies for a further two years. He took the degree of Bachelor of Arts in 1948 and of Master of Arts in 1953.^[1]

In 1948, after graduation, he accepted a position in government, and eventually became a senior civil servant working as an Assistant Secretary for the Ministry of Housing and Local Government, later part of the Department of the Environment. It was during this time that he began writing in his spare time.

Author

In 1972, Adams published Watership Down, from which he gained international acclaim. In 1974, following publication of his second novel, Shardik, he retired from government service, and since then has been a full-time author.

He originally began telling the story of Watership Down to his two daughters, and they insisted he publish it as a book. It took two years to write and was rejected by 13 publishers. When Watership Down was finally published, it sold over a million copies in record time in both the United Kingdom and the United States. Watership Down has become a modern classic and won both the Carnegie Medal and the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize in 1972. To date, Adams' best-known work has sold over 50 million copies worldwide.

Public figure

As of 1982, he was President of the RSPCA.

He also stood in the 1983 general election as an Independent Conservative in the Spelthorne constituency. His platform was based on opposition to fox hunting.

Personal life

At one point Adams served on Faculty at the University of Florida.^[2]

He now lives with his wife, Elizabeth, in Whitchurch, Hampshire, within 10 miles (16 km) of his birthplace. Their daughters, to whom Adams originally related the tales that became Watership Down, are Juliet and Rosamond.

Books

• Watership Down (1972) ISBN 978-0-7432-7770-9
• Shardik (1974) ISBN 978-0-380-00516-1
• Maia (1984) ISBN 978-0-517-62993-2
• Nature Through the Seasons (1975) ISBN 978-0-7226-5007-3
• The Tyger Voyage (1976) ISBN 978-0-394-40796-8
• The Plague Dogs (1977) ISBN 978-0-345-49402-3
• The Adventures & Brave Deeds Of The Ship's Cat On The Spanish Maine: Together With The Most Lamentable Losse Of The Alcestis & Triumphant Firing Of The Port Of Chagres (1977) (also published as The Ship's Cat) ISBN 978-0-224-01441-0
• Nature Day and Night (1978) ISBN 0-7226-5359-X (with Max Hooper)
• The Girl in a Swing (1980) ISBN 978-0-7139-1407-8
• The Iron Wolf and Other Stories (1980, published in the USA as The Unbroken Web) ISBN 978-0-517-40375-4
• The Phoenix Tree (1980, a collection by various authors, includes "The Story of El-ahrairah and the Black Rabbit of Inle" from Watership Down) ISBN 978-0-380-76380-1
• The Legend of Te Tuna (1982) ISBN 978-0-283-99393-0
• Voyage Through the Antarctic (1982; with Ronald Lockley), Allen Lane ISBN 0-7139-1396-7
• A Nature Diary (1985) ISBN 0-670-80105-4 / 978-0-670-80105-3
• The Bureaucats (1985) ISBN 0-670-80120-8, ISBN 978-0-670-80120-6
• Traveller (1988) ISBN 978-0-394-57055-6
• The Day Gone By (autobiography) (1990) ISBN 978-0-679-40117-9
• Tales from Watership Down (collection of linked stories) (1996) ISBN 978-0-380-72934-0
• The Outlandish Knight (1999) ISBN 978-0-7278-7033-9
• Daniel (2006) ISBN 1-903110-37-8

References

External links

• Richard Adams at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
• Richard Adams at the Internet Book List
• Richard Adams at the Internet Book Database of Fiction
• Richard Adams At Eighty
• Wrecking Ball Press publishers of 'Daniel'