Watership Down

Watership Down offers much more complexity than what, at first glance, is merely a charming children's tale of anthropomorphised rabbits that go on an adventure to seek a new home; read further and dig deeper, and you have a story with mythic qualities reminiscent of Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings - particularly The Fellowship of the Ring - laden with similar concerns around conserving nature (Adams was involved in animal welfare) and urban sprawl (the catalyst for the rabbits' journey is construction of a housing development). The detail and care afforded to descriptions of the land is apparent and appear to be informed by Adams' own experiences of living in the Home Counties and southern England; indeed most of the locations described in the novel are real places and one could, in theory, follow an approximation of the rabbits' journey in real life.

Adams deftly gives characterisation and distinct personalities to what is a considerably large cast of rabbits, including Fiver, the rabbit with some form of precognition or 'second-sight', and Hazel (whom it took a conscious effort on my part to remember was a male).

As Tolkien did for The Lord of the Rings, Adams devised a language for his story (though of course not to the same extent and depth as Tolkien) with 'Lapine'. Not only that, he invented a mythology for the rabbits, centred around the trickster El-ahrairah who appears in a few tangential chapters of the rabbits pausing to tell one of his stories.

This novel also sets itself apart as just a 'children's tale' in its refusal to shy away from the inevitable peril that would come from rabbits making such a journey; rabbits and other animals alike get bruised, bloodied and caught in traps, and there is death.

In the author's introduction to my edition, Adams recalls how he initially struggled to find publishers for 'Watership Down', as they said "younger children wouldn't like it because it's written in too adult a style; and older children would think a story about rabbits as babyish."

To be honest, with the way literacy is going these days, I would be surprised if any children at all would read this novel today. It is remarkably sophisticated for what is nominally a children's book, both in its content, themes and prose. I think it would pair well with The Hobbit in a juvenile fantasy reading list, as like that book, Watership Down is a fine quest narrative.

It is a long novel but I was engaged throughout, with action sufficient to not bog down the story, involving a daring rescue of domesticated rabbits and a grand escape from the authoritarian General Woundwort and his police-state warren.