I NOTE with sadness the death of Richard Adams: the doting father who told his bored children a story that became a timeless parable for our world (“Watership Dowen author dies”, The Herald, December 28).

In Hazel, Fiver, Bigwig, Dandelion, Cowslip, General Woundwort, Captain Campion, Blackavar and the rest, Watership Down reflected with brilliant concision our callous disregard for one another, let alone the environment – the warrens of Sandleford, the Wires and Efrafa horrific illustrations of attempted utopias that each led to a living Hell (or rather Inlé – to use the lapine language of the book).

If you don't appreciate why Watership Down - both the book and the film - still matter, I pity you. "My heart has joined the Thousand, for my friend has stopped running today."

Mark Boyle,

15 Linn Park Gardens,

Johnstone.