Puffin Watership Down (A Book)

I find this novel one of the best in the English language. Certainly, no other novel has made me cross the North Sea (3 times) to follow in the footprints of rabbits from Newbury to Overton. Dragging water, (a few years ago wine), food and tent along. 30 years ago it was certainly possible to find places exactly as Richard Adams described them. And little had indeed changed when I revisited this beautiful and peaceful part of the World in 2012. Thank you for having written the book. I wish every one to love it as much as I.

Just finished reading this at the ripe old age of 20 after my father was shocked that I'd not read it before. And I'm so glad he encouraged me to pick this up.The story follows a small band of rabbits looking for a place to make their home after escaping the ruin of their previous warren and tells of their adventures trough the exquisitely depicted English countryside. On the surface that's all this book may be about to some... but to me it's so much more. The things that struck me most were the strangeness of mankind in the way we change and use the environment and the incredible importance of stories in shaping our actions, beliefs and identity. Before any major undertaking the rabbits tell stories of El-ahrairah, Prince of the Forest, who the rabbits hold in religious esteem. El-ahrairah's qualities in these stories define the qualities that the rabbits believe make them different, unique amongst all the other animals. His actions empower them to be brave, take risks.It reminded me of a TED talk by Yuval Noah Harari about the rise of humans. He proposes that the great feats of cooperation humanity accomplishes stems from an ability to believe in stories that we cannot directly see or prove. And in this book the rabbits do great things through their belief in their stories. It's a beautiful thing that really resonated with me. How our perception of our place in the world can so influence what we can achieve.I'd recommend this book to anyone who'd be willing to read about rabbit adventures on the advice that this book is about so much more :)

I had originally received a damaged book, but once I contacted Amazon, they were brilliant and sent me out a new, undamaged book with no additional expense.This is a book that I wasn't expecting to get me how it did! It's a book that goes deeper than just reading about some rabbits and one that I had chosen to read with my Partner and am now so unbelievably thankful that I have read it. It's a book that has and will stick with me. It's subtleness is what I loved the most and what broke me when reading this. It's a classic for a reason and it so rightly deserves to be.

This book is so well known I feel that there is no need to praise it further. I bought it as a gift for my 11yo granddaughter and she read it within a week, loving every page. She has seen the film and said the book is even better! I even took my son and daughter many years ago to visit the actual Watership Down in Hampshire! So sad that the greedy owner of the land, one Andrew Lloyd Webber closed public access to the entire acreage!

The prose is excellent and the author has a strong grasp of the English language, which he uses to full effect. Adams said in an interview that there wasn't meaning or allegory behind his writing but for me I felt he was criticising the original warren as a complacent Britain, Cowslip's Warren as a modern Britain, perhaps, and Efrafa as a militaristic Germany. Or something like that! I also thought it reminded me of the flight of the nation of Israel from Egypt in search of the 'promised land' in the Old Testament. The book is fantastic and I'd recommend it to anyone with an imagination and likes to draw parallels with the World in which we live. Or to those who like a story about animals in the English countryside, such as, Redwall or The animals of Farthing Wood.