Watership Down by Richard Adams

I finished reading this to my 10-year old daughter a couple of weeks ago.  It is a wonderful read - much deeper and more detailed than the film.  The writing is beautiful and the characters  are convincing and varied.  Adams creates a believable rabbit culture with its own mythology, rather like Tolkien did but on a smaller scale.  I particularly like the way that most of the rabbits have great difficulty in understanding some things which humans find obvious, like the idea that a piece of wood can be used to float across a stream.

Next spring, one sunny morning, I am going to wake Zoe up early and together we will catch a train to Newbury. From there we will take the Basingstoke bus as far as Kingsclere, and then we will walk up onto Watership Down and there I will point out to her the places mentioned in the book.  We will walk on along the ridge to Ladle Hill and, if there is time,  cross the valley to Beacon Hill on the opposite side and then look down on Highclere Castle.

Comments

[Robert]

Watership Down is a lovely book. The animated version, perhaps wisely, played down the rabbits' language, their mythology of the Sun God, the Black Rabbit and Prince with a Thousand Enemies and the tales of Rowsby Wuff. I first read Watership Down while suffering from a fever, and was transported into another world. I have had a soft spot for wild rabbits ever since and often think of Hazel, Fiver and the rest when I interrupt their silflay around the local warren.