Rabbits redux

At the FT, Angus Watson walks Watership Down (site registration required).

I must confess that I absolutely adored Watership Down as a child - I read it again and again, and found the scenes of rabbit warfare unutterably moving! I was just thinking a few days ago of Richard Adams - I was reading the first installment of Jacqueline Carey's Kushiel series and was very much reminded of Adams' novel Maia, a favorite of mine when I was a teenager.

In the late 70s and early 80s, Adams seemed absolutely central to the (my?) literary landscape - The Girl in a Swing made a huge impression on me as a Young Person, and I was again thinking recently that I should obtain a copy and read it again. But one does not seem to hear of him so much these days - his reputation might be due for a revival...

Campus bunnies

Obviously one would not introduce them deliberately, but these rabbits (courtesy of Wendy) are awfully sweet...

All-time bestsellers

At the Sunday Times, Stephen McClarence has a delightful piece on Shire Books:

Sue Ross pushes open an office door and stands back while I take in the wall of words in front of us. Stacked from floor to ceiling is the complete range of Shire books: every edition of every one of the 1,000 or so books that it has published over the past half-century.

In alphabetical order, from The AA to Writing Antiques (about vintage pens and pencils), they pack 80ft of shelf space. Ross, the sales manager for 30 years, pulls out titles at random: Firefighting Equipment; The English Rococo Garden; Cash Carriers in Shops; Duck Decoys; The Victorian Chemist and Druggist; Shell Houses and Grottoes; The Salt Industry. As she says: “Shire publishes books on subjects that no one else would publish books on.”

But these books would be an utter godsend for the research-minded novelist with an interest in Britain's past! Hmmm, the one I am most particularly thinking I would like to read is The Archaeology of Rabbit Warrens! - but just reading through this list is making my mouth water, that is fairly mind-bending...

(In other news, the needle on my internal monitor is very gradually moving from "refractory" towards "moderately tranquil," though it still has some way to go.)