The author of Watership Down, Richard Adams, has died aged 96, his daughter has said.
Juliet Johnson said her father had been "ailing for some time" but "died peacefully" on Christmas Eve.
Watership Down, a children's classic about a group of rabbits in search of a new home after their warren was destroyed, was first published in 1972.
Adams was 52 when he wrote it, after first telling the story to his two daughters on a long car journey.
It went on to become a best-seller, with tens of millions of copies bought around the world.
Mrs Johnson told BBC Radio 4 she had a "long talk" with her father on the night before he died.
"I assured him that he was much loved, that he had done great work, that many people loved his books," she said.
BBC News.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGyQmH9NZcw