Adams, Richard George

Adams, Richard George (1920- ), British writer for both adults and children. Adams was born in Newbury, Berkshire, and educated at Oxford University, where he read modern history, taking his degree in 1948. Adams served with the British Army during World War II and went on to become a successful civil servant before becoming a full-time writer. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.

His best known work is the novel Watership Down (1972), for which he received the Carnegie Medal (1972) and the Guardian Award (1973). The story about a rabbit community and its search for a new warren is memorable for the sheer power of its narration and its minute knowledge of countryside and wildlife. But it may also function as political allegory or on the level of social comment; the various warrens which the rabbits visit display different systems of government and their effects. His other works include Shardik (1974) and Maia (1984), both set in the imaginary Beklan Empire; The Plague Dogs (1977), a work in a similar vein to Watership Down;The Girl in a Swing (1980); and a collection of folktales, The Iron Wolf and Other Stories (1980). In 1990 he published his autobiography, Day Gone By.