Richard Adams

Graeme Davis (University of Buckingham)

Ed. by Dimitra Fimi, University of Glasgow
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.09: English Writing and Culture: Postwar and Contemporary Britain , 1945-present.
Vol. editors: Gina Lyle (University of Glasgow), Graham MacPhee (University of Manchester), Kerry Myler (Birmingham Newman University), Jenni Ramone (The Nottingham Trent University)

Dates

Born 1920
Died 2016

Places

Active in United Kingdom

Activities

Primary

Children's/Young Adult writer

Resources

Adams' Works

Save to Bookshelf

Richard George Adams (1920-2016), best known for his novel

Watership Down

(1972), was born near Newbury in Berkshire, UK and lived most of his life within forty miles of his birth-place. He came to writing late in life, with

Watership Down

facilitating an early retirement from the Civil Service (aged 54), and his subsequent writing was continuous over forty-two years. The themes of Adams’ writing strongly reflect influences from earlier life, particularly his education, his war-time experiences including the loss of many friends, his career with the Civil Service, and his family.

Adams came from a middle-class family, and as was usual for the children of such a family at this time was sent at the age of eight to a boarding Preparatory school, Horris Hill, Berkshire (1929-1933). The

Please log in to consult the article in its entirety. If you are a member (student of staff) of a subscribing institution (see List), you should be able to access the LE on campus directly (without the need to log in), and off-campus either via the institutional log in we offer, or via your institution's remote access facilities, or by creating a personal user account with your institutional email address. If you are not a member of a subscribing institution, you will need to purchase a personal subscription. For more information on how to subscribe as an individual user, please see under Individual Subcriptions.

1732 words

Citation: Davis, Graeme. "Richard Adams". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 15 October 2020 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=14488, accessed 31 October 2024.]