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Richard Adams reads from Watership Down at exhibition of Aldo Galli paintings in Whitchurch, Hampshire, UK
Newbury, Berkshire
Influences
| Richard George Adams | |
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Richard Adams reads from Watership Down at exhibition of Aldo Galli paintings in Whitchurch, Hampshire, UK |
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| Born | 9 May 1920 Newbury, Berkshire |
| Occupation | Novelist |
| Nationality | English |
| Notable work(s) | Watership Down |
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Influences
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Richard George Adams (born 9 May, 1920) is an English novelist who is best known as the author of Watership Down.
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Adams was born in Newbury, Berkshire. From 1933 until 1938 he was educated at Bradfield College. In 1938 he went up to Worcester College, Oxford to read Modern History, later to continue his education later after his service in 1946 and obtain his Master's degree from there in 1948.[citation needed] 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, he continued to serve until 1946. He received a class B discharge.
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 Department of Agriculture. It was during this time that he began writing in his spare time.
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 thirteen 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 world-wide.
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.
At one point Adams served on Faculty at the University of Florida.[2]
He now lives with his wife, Elizabeth, in Whitchurch, Hampshire, Hampshire, within 10 miles (16 km) of his birthplace. Their daughters, to whom Adams originally related the tales that became Watership Down, are Julie and Roasmund.
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