Watership Down is British author Richar Adams's first and most successful novel, a heroic fantasy about a small group of rabbits, published in the UK by Rex Collings Ltd in 1972. Although the animals in the novel live in their natural environment, they are anthropomorphized, possessing their own culture, language (Lapine), proverbs, poetry, and mythology. Evoking epic themes, the novel recounts the rabbits' odyssey as they escape the destruction of their warren to seek a place in which to establish a new home, encountering perils and temptations along the way.