Richard Adams, Author of 'Watership Down'...

[shireling]

...has died at the age of 96.

I can't remember a time I didn't know Hazel, Big Wig and Fiver. My own dog-eared copy is on the shelf behind me. El-ahrairah, the lapine John Henry, was the inspiration for one of my characters, and all my cats knew that, in our home at least, a hrududu is a vacuum cleaner. I'm going to read that book again in the coming year; the courage of rabbits is not to be taken lightly.

[Padfoot]

I remem ober reading it, but I was too young then (like I was when I read LOTR for the first time) to fully comprehend the story. I ought to read it again.

[shireling]

I didn't read it until I was in my teens (like LOTR.) And if it's a kid's book, it's a kid book like LOTR is.

I can remember trying to explain why I liked it to a friend of mine then (who was close to the age I am now), and the pitiful look she gave me. It was as if all of my eloquence was reduced to 'Rabbits. Rabbits - rabbits - rabbits, rabbits, rabbits...'