Richard Adams was born in Newbury, Berkshire, England, in 1920. He served in the British Army from 1940 through 1946, during World War II. In 1948 Adams received a mater's degree from Worcester College at Oxford University. He worked as a civil servant from 1948 to 1974, and since 1974 has been a fulltime author. Adams wrote his first novel, Watership Down, while still a civil servant in 1972. The novel won him the Carnegie Medal and was a large success in England, …showed first 75 words of 510 total…

…showed last 75 words of 510 total…animals. It is also a story about life, as the rabbits' lives in the rabbit warrens bring up many strong parallels to human societies. However Watership Down is read—as a political, social, or environmental critique or simply as a book about the search for a home and life—it is undoubtedly greatly influenced by the state of the natural world in the twentieth century and the role that humanity must play within that world.