Richard Adams (1) (1920–2016)
Author of Watership Down
For other authors named Richard Adams, see the disambiguation page.
About the Author
Richard George Adams was born in Newbury, England on May 9, 1920. He enrolled at the University of Oxford in 1938, but his studies were interrupted by World War II. During the war, he served with the British airborne forces in the Middle East and India. After the war, he returned to Oxford and show more received a degree in history in 1948. He joined the Ministry of Housing and Local Government and worked his way up over 20 years to a senior post in the clean-air section of the environmental department. He retired in 1974 to become a full-time writer. His first his novel, Watership Down, was published in 1972. It received the Carnegie Medal in Literature in 1972 and the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize in 1973. His other books include Shardik, The Plague Dogs, Traveller, and Tales from Watership Down. He also wrote an autobiography entitled The Day Gone By. He died on December 24, 2016 at the age of 96. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Series
Works by Richard Adams
Adams Richard 3 copies
Watership Down #, Maia # 1 copy
Associated Works
The Graphic Canon of Children's Literature: The World's Greatest Kids' Lit as Comics and Visuals (2014) — Contributor — 90 copies
The Plague Dogs [1982 film] — Original book — 19 copies
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Legal name
- Adams, Richard George
- Birthdate
- 1920-05-09
- Date of death
- 2016-12-24
- Burial location
- Donated to Medical Science
- Gender
- male
- Nationality
- UK
- Country (for map)
- England, UK
- Birthplace
- Newbury, Berkshire, England, UK
- Place of death
- Oxford, Oxfordshire, England, UK
- Cause of death
- complications of a blood disorder
- Places of residence
- Isle of Man
Whitchurch, Hampshire, England, UK - Education
- Bradfield College
Worcester College, University of Oxford (BA|1948|MA|1953)
Horris Hill School, Newbury - Occupations
- civil servant
novelist
author
writer
Assistant Secretary, Ministry of Housing and Local Government - Relationships
- Adams, Elizabeth (wife)
Adams, Juliet (daughter)
Adams, Rosamond (daughter) - Organizations
- Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals
British Army (WWII)
British Civil Service - Awards and honors
- Whitchurch Award
Royal Society of Literature (Fellow, 1975)
Carnegie Medal in Literature (1972)
Guardian Children's Fiction Prize (1973) - Short biography
- Richard 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. On 3 September 1939 Neville Chamberlain announced that the United Kingdom was at war with Germany. In 1940 Adams joined the British Army, in which he served until 1946. He received a class B discharge enabling him to return to Worcester to continue his studies for a further two years (1946-48). He took the degree of Bachelor of Arts in 1948 and of Master of Arts in 1953.
He was a senior civil servant who worked as an Assistant Secretary for the Department of Agriculture, later part of the Department of the Environment, from 1948 to 1974. Since 1974, following publication of his second novel, Shardik, he has been a full-time author.
He originally began telling the story of Watership Down to his two daughters, Juliet and Rosamund, 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, earning him more than all his other books put together.
As of 1982, he was President of the RSPCA.
He also contested the 1983 general election, standing as an Independent Conservative in the Spelthorne constituency on a platform of opposition to fox hunting.
Members
Discussions
Watership Down in Centipede Press (August 2023)
Watership Down in The Green Dragon (July 2023)
Richard Adams in Legacy Libraries (July 2018)
Watership Down in Someone explain it to me... (January 2017)
fantasy novel about a girl who who comes of age as a court concubine, eventually begins a family, le in Name that Book (February 2013)
Group Read: Watership Down (Spoiler) in 75 Books Challenge for 2011 (September 2012)
Group Read: Watership Down (Non-spoiler) in 75 Books Challenge for 2011 (July 2011)
Reviews
Lists
Overdue Podcast (1)
Comfort Reads (1)
Favourite Books (1)
Ghosts (1)
BBC Top Books (1)
Autumn books (1)
Unread books (1)
discontinued (1)
Book wishlist (1)
Carole's List (1)
First Novels (1)
Ambleside Books (1)
1980s (1)
Read These Too (1)
um actually (1)
1970s (2)
Evan's Wish List (1)
BBC Big Read (1)
BBC Big Read (1)
Best Dog Stories (1)
Five star books (1)
Epic Fiction (1)
Awards
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Associated Authors
Statistics
- Works
- 81
- Also by
- 13
- Members
- 35,798
- Popularity
- #524
- Rating
- 4.1
- Reviews
- 633
- ISBNs
- 499
- Languages
- 22
- Favorited
- 66