Richard Adams, author of children’s classic ‘Watership Down’, dies at age 96

British author Richard Adams, whose 1972 book Watership Down became a classic of children’s literature, has died, according to his daughter. He was 96.

Juliet Johnson said on Tuesday that Adams died in Oxfordshire, England on Christmas Eve after getting progressively weaker in recent weeks.

“He died of what used to be called old age,” she said, adding that her father also suffered from a blood disorder.

Adams’ lyrical and poignant novel about the plight of rabbits whose home was under threat became an astonishing success after it was published. Popular with both children and adults, it has since sold millions of copies and was made into a film, with a remake scheduled for next year.

It entered the popular imagination and has never been forgotten.

Adams dreamed up the elements of Watership Down while working as a civil servant and regaling Juliet and her sister Rosamond with stories about rabbits. He would tell them the stories at bedtime and on car trips, often embellishing the tales while driving the girls to school.