# Richard Adams Has Died **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 27, 2016, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/richard-adams-has-died/775717 "2016-12-27T18:18:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![bmoak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9dc877/32.png) [@bmoak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bmoak)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2016, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/richard-adams-has-died/775717/21 "2016-12-28T00:26:52Z")
Watership Down, Tales From Watership Down, The Plague Dogs, Shardik, Maia, Traveller, The Iron Wolf & Other Stories, and The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing. There aren’t too many non-series writers that I’ve read more books by. If I put the DVD of Watership Down in tonight, I’ll be almost certain to bawl. ---
**Author:** ![buddha\_david](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ee7513/32.png) [@buddha\_david](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buddha_david)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2016, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/richard-adams-has-died/775717/22 "2016-12-28T00:29:21Z")
So sorry to hear that Mr. Adams has stopped running. But I’d be lying if I didn’t say that I thought he’d died long ago – as in _decades_ ago. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2016, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/richard-adams-has-died/775717/23 "2016-12-28T00:31:05Z")
This is the first I’ve noticed this thread. But by pure coincidence, at just about the same time that the OP was posted, I was cussing in Lapine. My mom and I were at a live animal exhibit, looking at some foxes. And whew, were they ever embleer! ---
**Author:** ![Ruby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/13edae/32.png) [@Ruby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruby)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2016, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/richard-adams-has-died/775717/24 "2016-12-28T01:56:17Z")
After reading Watership Down, I never looked at rabbits the same. RIP Mr. Adams. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2016, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/richard-adams-has-died/775717/25 "2016-12-28T02:00:16Z")
> [@bmoak](#): > > If I put the DVD of Watership Down in tonight, I’ll be almost certain to bawl. You only really need [the final minutes](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMvGUCTpCIY). ---
**Author:** ![robby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robby/32/11048_2.png) [@robby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robby)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2016, 6:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/richard-adams-has-died/775717/26 "2016-12-28T06:20:21Z")
I first read _Watership Down_ in 7th grade English class. We had to pick a novel off a list we were provided with no other information given, and the book would be ordered for us. Having seen _[Gray Lady Down](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gray_Lady_Down)_ the year before, I was sure this novel had something to do with a sinking ship. Imagine my surprise when I was handed a thick novel with a rabbit on the cover! Anyway, I had no choice but to read it, and it turned out to be one of my favorite books of all time. RIP, Mr. Adams. P.S. I liked _Watership Down_ so much, that I read _Maia_ a few years later. Quite a different story, to say the least! 😉 ---
**Author:** ![GoodOmens](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/d26b3c/32.png) [@GoodOmens](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GoodOmens)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2016, 11:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/richard-adams-has-died/775717/27 "2016-12-28T11:19:38Z")
I’m reminded once again that I never did get around to reading Watership Down. Now that I’m 40 maybe it’s time. ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2016, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/richard-adams-has-died/775717/28 "2016-12-28T13:40:31Z")
Go for it. I didn’t read \*To Kill a Mockingbird \*until a few years ago. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2016, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/richard-adams-has-died/775717/29 "2016-12-28T13:55:52Z")
I LOVED Watership Down, but was disappointed with every other Adams book I’ve read. Some of Plague Dogs was good, but overall it was disappointing. I had to force my way through Shardik. I never even tried Girl on a Swing. or Tales from Watership Down. Nevertheless, one really great book is still an impressive achievement. I’ve re-read it numerous times. It also made a helluva movie. ---
**Author:** ![JcWoman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jcwoman/32/2889_2.png) [@JcWoman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JcWoman)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2016, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/richard-adams-has-died/775717/30 "2016-12-28T14:45:46Z")
I soaked up books like a sponge from a very young age, and Watership Down was one of the books that I loved so much it embedded itself into my psyche. I was always an oversensitive child who loved animals more than people so I really identified with the rabbits. Loved it so much that it’s one of my all time favorite books, after 50+ years of reading thousands of titles in all different genres. I need to read it again. It’s been a while. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2016, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/richard-adams-has-died/775717/31 "2016-12-28T14:48:54Z")
I think that _Plague Dogs_ could have been good, if it hadn’t been quite so heavy-handed. Yeah, yeah, we get it: Animal experimentation is bad. We got it the first 17 times you hit us over the head with a sledgehammer, too. ---
**Author:** ![Sangahyando](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f14d63/32.png) [@Sangahyando](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sangahyando)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2016, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/richard-adams-has-died/775717/32 "2016-12-28T16:13:13Z")
> [@robby](#): > > Having seen _[Gray Lady Down](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gray_Lady_Down)_ the year before, I was sure this novel had something to do with a sinking ship. Imagine my surprise when I was handed a thick novel with a rabbit on the cover! > > Anyway, I had no choice but to read it, and it turned out to be one of my favorite books of all time. RIP, Mr. Adams. When _Watership Down_ was newly published, I went to my local bookshop in the UK in search of a copy; the young assistant hadn’t heard of the book, and headed at first to the non-fiction ships-and-the-sea section ! (Understandable – she was very young, and it seemed clear that books were her job, not her passion.) > [@](#): > > P.S. I liked _Watership Down_ so much, that I read _Maia_ a few years later. Quite a different story, to say the least! 😉 > [@CalMeacham](#): > > I LOVED Watership Down, but was disappointed with every other Adams book I’ve read. Some of Plague Dogs was good, but overall it was disappointing. I had to force my way through Shardik. I never even tried Girl on a Swing. or Tales from Watership Down. > [@Chronos](#): > > I think that _Plague Dogs_ could have been good, if it hadn’t been quite so heavy-handed. Yeah, yeah, we get it: Animal experimentation is bad. We got it the first 17 times you hit us over the head with a sledgehammer, too. I also love _Watership Down_ – reckoning it a work of genius – otherwise, I’ve found Adams’s novels to vary IMO widely over the spectrum between definitely readable, and beyond-awful. I much liked _The Girl in a Swing_ – for me, highly gripping / moving / creepy; and _Maia_. I’m with **Chronos** on _The Plague Dogs_, and feel likewise about _Shardik_: both unsubtly earnest / preachy to the point of being almost unbearable. (_Maia_ is set in the same fictional “universe” as Shardik, but is very different stuff – enjoyably picaresque / raunchy telling of low-life roguery not involving hideous evil.) And like **LHoD** , I thought _Tales from Watership Down_ feeble. Adams’s autobiography of the first three decades or so of his life, _The Day Gone By_ (AFAIK he published no further autobiography) I found fascinating, especially about the World War 2 years, in which he served in the British Army’s Royal Army Service Corps (“in the rear with the gear”). He was never in direct harm’s way in WW2; but served initially in the UK, then in the Middle East and subsequently Far East – recounted very interestingly. ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2016, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/richard-adams-has-died/775717/33 "2016-12-28T18:26:32Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > I LOVED Watership Down, but was disappointed with every other Adams book I’ve read. > > Nevertheless, one really great book is still an impressive achievement. I’ve re-read it numerous times. It also made a helluva movie. Eh, never mind. Let’s just say +1 to the above :). RIP Mr. Adams and thanks for your truly great first book. I treasure it still. ---
**Author:** ![JackieLikesVariety](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackielikesvariety/32/296_2.png) [@JackieLikesVariety](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JackieLikesVariety)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2016, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/richard-adams-has-died/775717/34 "2016-12-28T20:42:19Z")
I loved the book but have never seen the movie; I guess it’s worth finding, RIP to a brilliant story teller ☹ [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/richard-adams-has-died/775717.md?page=1)