It was a book that almost didn't get published and was inspired by stories the author made up to pacify his two daughters on long car journeys.
Watership Down was rejected by 30 publishers before small, independent firm Rex Collins had the foresight and good fortune to accept Richard Adams' debut novel.
The touching story of a group of rabbits escaping the destruction of their warren by developers became a beloved children’s classic while the animated film terrified legions of children growing up in the 1970s.
Now, the universities of Glasgow and Cardiff are to jointly host a conference next year celebrating the book's 50th year and its continuing appeal.
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Organisers of the conference say it will feature a wealth of perspectives on the book with the publication of a new graphic novel, the first time it has been adapted into this format.
Adams’ daughter Rosamond Mahony, British children’s writer SF Said and Dr Briony a specialist in literary animal studies, will be keynote speakers at the three-day conference being held at the University of Glasgow from September 2-4 2022.
The story of Watership Down began as tales about rabbits Hazel and Fiver that Adams told his young daughters, Juliet and Rosamond.
It was not guaranteed to be a success. At almost 500 pages, Adams’ story of a group of rabbits seeking, and then establishing, a new warren was a long novel. The author was already in his 50s, with no track record as a novelist.
Nevertheless, Collings’ gamble paid off richly. Watership Down became an immediate critical success, winning both the Carnegie Medal and the Guardian Prize after it hit the shelves in November 1972.
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While it has been been endlessly picked apart and analysed, the daughters of Richard Adams say their late father was clear that, “It’s just a story about rabbits.”
The 1978 animation, featuring the voices of John Hurt and Richard Briers and soundtracked by Art Garfunkel's Bright Eyes was graphic in its depictions of death and nature's cruelty.
Juliet recalled: "Daddy didn’t like the way people babied, and pandered to children, lying to them about death and so on,” said Juliet. “We’re destroying the environment and endangering all the animals – I think it would be strange to ignore that.”
Today several million copies have been sold worldwide, it has been translated into well over 20 languages and has been adapted several times, including as a 1978 feature-length animated film, and most recently in 2018 as a major animated TV series by BBC/Netflix. The author died in 2016.
Rosamond Mahony said: “As custodians of this most beloved novel, our family are delighted that my father’s Watership Down is to be the subject of this academic conference.
“People of all ages continue to connect with the story of Watership Down and its key messages about the environment, leadership and friendship are as important today as they were a half century ago.”
The conference is also inviting academics to submit 20-minute papers on any aspect of Watership Down, its influences and legacy. It is hoped that these papers will be turned into a collection of essays to mark the 50th anniversary of the novel.
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Dr Dimitra Fimi, Co-Director of the Centre for Fantasy and the Fantastic, at the University of Glasgow, said: “Watership Down is a classic of children’s fantasy, somewhere in-between animal stories and ancient epics like the Aeneid, complete with an invented language and allusions to a folkloric and a learned tradition.
"I am so looking forward to new perspectives and debates on this much-loved book."
SF Said, whose popular Varjak Paw books show the legacy of Watership Down, said the book had inspired her to become a writer.
She said: "I re-read it for the first time just after I finished writing Varjak Paw, and was stunned to see how deeply it had shaped my imagination; there would certainly be no Varjak Paw without Watership Down.
"I believe it has shaped our entire culture, as only the greatest literature can, and I am delighted that it will be celebrated in this conference."
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