Richard Adams (author)

Richard Adams
Adams reads from Watership Down in 2008
Born	Richard George Adams (1920-05-09)9 May 1920 Wash Common, Newbury, Berkshire, England
Died	24 December 2016(2016-12-24) (aged 96) Oxford, Oxfordshire, England
Occupation	Novelist
Nationality	British
Notable works	Watership Down, Shardik, The Plague Dogs, The Girl in a Swing
Notable awards	Carnegie Medal 1972 Guardian Prize 1973
Signature

Richard George Adams (9 May 1920 – 24 December 2016) was an English novelist who is best known as the author of Watership Down, Shardik and The Plague Dogs. He studied modern history at university before serving in the British Army during World War II. Afterwards, he completed his studies, and then joined the British Civil Service. In 1974, two years after Watership Down was published, Adams became a full-time author.

Adams was born on 9 May 1920 in Wash Common, near Newbury, Berkshire, England, the son of Lilian Rosa (Button) and Evelyn George Beadon Adams, a doctor. He attended Horris Hill School from 1926 to 1933, and then Bradfield College from 1933 to 1938. In 1938, he went to Worcester College, Oxford, to read Modern History. In July 1940, Adams was called up to join the British Army. He was posted to the Royal Army Service Corps and was selected for the Airborne Company, where he worked as a brigade liaison. He served in Palestine, Europe and the Far East but saw no direct action against either the Germans or the Japanese.

After being released from the army in 1946, Adams returned to Worcester College to continue his studies for a further two years. He received a bachelor's degree in 1948, proceeding MA in 1953. After his graduation in 1948, Adams joined the British Civil Service, rising to the rank of Assistant Secretary to the Ministry of Housing and Local Government, later part of the Department of the Environment. It was during this period that he began writing fiction in his spare time.