The author of Watership Down, Richard Adams, has died aged 96, his daughter has said.
The tear-jerking children's classic about a group of rabbits in search of a new home after the destruction of their warren was first published in 1972.
The tale, first told by Adams on a long car journey with his daughters, turned into a best-seller.
Richard Adams, right, found it difficult to find a publisher for his classic Watership Down. Photo: YouTube
Adams, from Newbury in Berkshire, also wrote Shardik, The Plague Dogs and The Girl in a Swing.
Watership Down was first adapted for screen in 1978.
Adams was born on 9 May 1920, in Newbury, Berkshire.
He was the son of a country doctor and was brought up in the countryside with views towards the real Watership Down, on the Hampshire border.
One of his earliest memories was seeing a local man pushing a handcart full of dead rabbits down the street.
"It made me realise, in an instant, that rabbits were things and that it was only in a baby's world that they were not," he had said.
His career was in the civil service and spent part of his career managing the clean air programme designed to reduce pollution, especially that caused by the many coal fires still burning in British households.
The first 52 years of his life were lived in relative anonymity.
After he wrote Watership Down he struggled to find anyone to publish it.
Many of his rejection letters complained that the book was too long and his characters did not fit the common perception of cuddly bunnies.
His rabbits were described with biological realism; they defecated, had sex and engaged in violent battles for dominance.
Eventually, in 1972, after 14 rejections, the publisher Rex Collings saw the potential and agreed to take it on with an initial print run of 2500 copies.
It was hailed as a children's classic, going on to sell more than 50 million copies.
- BBC
