Oneworld Readers’ Guide

www.oneworld-publications.com

Watership DownRichard Adams

Illustrated by Aldo Galli

A phenomenal worldwide bestseller for over forty years, Richard Adams’ spellbinding classic Watership Down is one of the best-loved novels of all time. Set in the beautiful English countryside of the Berkshire Downs, a once idyllic rural landscape, this stirring tale of adventure, courage and survival follows a band of very special rabbits fleeing the destruction of their home by a developer. Led by a stout-hearted pair of brothers, they leave the safety of Sandleford Warren in search of a safe haven and a mysterious promised land, skirting danger at every turn.

About the Author Richard Adams, the son of a country doctor, grew up in Berkshire and studied history at Worcester College, Oxford before and after the Second World War, in which he served in the First Airborne division. He originally began telling the story of Watership Down, his first book, to his two daughters to while away a long car journey to Stratford-on-Avon. They insisted he write it down, and it became a huge success on publication with people of all ages, winning both the Guardian Children’s Fiction Award and the Carnegie Medal. Watership Down is now considered a modern classic, and recently appeared at number thirty-seven on the Sunday Times list of bestsellers in the last forty years. Richard Adams has written nineteen books, including Shardik and The Plague Dogs (forthcoming from Oneworld Modern Classics). He currently lives in Hampshire, England, with his wife Elizabeth, to whom he has been married for sixty-five years.

Discussion Points1. Why do you think Adams chose to use rabbits over other animals?

2. Do you think Hazel is the best leader for his band of rabbits?

3. How is the idea of home explored in the novel?

Oneworld Readers’ Guide

www.oneworld-publications.com

4. Some reviewers have been very critical of Adams’ portrayal of female rabbits in Watership Down. Is this a view that you agree with?

5. Can Hazel’s band of rabbits be seen as being representative of any groups of people in the world today?

6. How are humans portrayed in Watership Down?

7. The only truly successful warren in the novel is Hazel’s, which is democratic. Leaving aside Efrafan’s harsh regime, can you see any way that the socialist model of the warren of the snares could have been successful, perhaps if it had been placed in a different setting?

8. “The rabbits became strange in many ways, different from other rabbits. They knew well enough what was happening. But even to themselves they pretended that all was well, for the food was good, they were protected, they had nothing to fear but the one fear; and that struck here and there, never enough at a time to drive them away.’” Can you cite any specific examples where rabbits chose to turn a blind eye? How similar are these examples to real life?

9. Adams invented a fictional language for the novel. How successful is his ‘lapine language’?

10. Adams has refuted the claim that the stories of El-ahrairah are an example of religious symbolism in the novel. What purpose do you think these stories serve?

11. “I think we ought to do all we can to make these creatures friendly. It might turn out to be well worth the trouble.” What do you feel the novel has to say about tolerance?