I’ll never forget reading that blurb.  It was on the back of a beige book my mother had brought from the library and when I read it, I said, “Well, that’s a bit much.  I flipped the book over and looked at the pen-and-ink cover drawing and the red and black type underneath. It still didn’t look very promising.   I looked askance at my mother who shrugged her shoulders.  “Read it or don’t” she said. “I thought you might like it, you liked animal stories when you were little.”  She looked at the cover and added.  “It has rabbits in it.”  That’s how I met Watership Down.

I didn’t know it at the time but I was merely the latest in a long line of people to underestimate this story, starting with its author.  Richard Adams entertained his daughters during rides to school with stories of what they saw along the way: country roads and rabbits.  It wasn’t until the girls demanded a written account that he started to shape the tale.  Then, four publishers and three agents turned down the manuscript saying “Adults won’t read an animal story and it’s far too scary for kids.”  The publisher who printed the first edition couldn’t afford to make many books but he did make a point of getting those copies into the hands of influential critics.  The praise was heard in America and the rest, as they say, is history.  The world fell in love with Watership Down.

For the book isn’t just a story of anthropomorphized hares.  If that’s what you want (which is fine!) other stories have bunnies that wear clothes and have cunning homes with furniture.   Watership Down is an epic where rag-tag wanderers venture into the Great Unknown when their home is threatened with extinction.  They face terror and danger from unexpected sources and they learn to trust each other for survival.  There’s humor and pathos, courage and unexpected luck like there should be in any adventure story and there’s even a bit of information about rabbits.  Mr. Adams consulted the best rabbit expert he could find when he wrote Watership Down and tried to incorporate the man’s knowledge.  In other words, its an adventure story where the heroes happen to be rabbits.

There’s also love for the land in this tale and nothing pleased me more than to learn Watership Down really exists.  The country is in Hampshire, between the village of Kingsclere and Highclere Castle, site of the popular series “Downton Abbey”.  At least two web sites have been created to give visitors a virtual tour of the sites in the novel (Bits and Bobstones and Journey to the Real Watership Down) and it seems the locals are used to findng fans of the novel wandering around the Beech Tree.  I have my own reasons for wanting to visit that country (there’s a huge historic horse stable there) but I’d count myself lucky to stand near the summit and echo Blackberry in saying, “Come and look, you can see the whole world.”

So yes, I still love this story of rabbits which is and is not true.  As long as courage is needed and friends are true and evil must be resisted, there’s a need for Watership Down.   And bless the critic that wrote, “I announce with trembling pleasure the appearance of a great story...”   That person spoke the truth.