Watership Down (1978) • 40 Years Later

A group of rabbits flee their doomed warren and face many dangers to find and protect their new home.

written by Remy Dean.

“The primroses were over” is still one of my favourite opening lines of any novel. Watership Down is one of those books that engenders great affection in its readership. If encountered at the right age, it’s an immersive and enchanting experience that leaves a lifelong impression. I remember a friend lending me J.R.R Tolkien’s The Hobbit, which I wanted to like, but I just couldn’t get into. I did like the map at the beginning, though. It was around this time I came across the classic paperback edition of Watership Down. It, too, had a map at the beginning and I remember starting to read it in WH Smith where I’d been left to browse whilst my parents went shopping elsewhere. Upon their return, they found me standing there totally engrossed. I was around 12 years old.

Rex Collings first published the book in 1972 with a pressing of just 2,500 copies. This was after author Richard Adams had been touting it around for some time and had received at least seven rejections from…