Maia (novel) natural objects, and sexual terms; the last "allows adults to leave the book within reach of children." Some are also used in "Shardik". "The New Yorker" quipped that though Maia's career as a Playboy Bunny was reminiscent of "Watership Down", she seemed more like a fish, and her swimming "changes... much more than her career". It said "Mr. Adams's artistry distinguishes his work from those didactic fantasies which border on science fiction"; instead the aim was entertainment, as shown in the elaborate settings, and the reader has no reason to put the book down. Maia (novel) Maia is a fantasy
Watership Down obituary of Collings, to accept "a book as bizarre by an unknown writer which had been turned down by the major London publishers; but," she continued, "it was also dazzlingly brave and intuitive." Collings had little capital and could not pay an advance but "he got a review copy onto every desk in London that mattered." Adams wrote that it was Collings who gave "Watership Down" its title. There was a second edition in 1973. Macmillan USA, then a media giant, published the first U.S. edition in 1974 and a Dutch edition was also published that year by Het Spectrum.