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The creator of Watership Down displayed a cold-heart when he broke off a wartime love affair which he later claimed to be the victim of, never-before-seen letters reveal.

Years before he wrote the best-selling children's novel about adventurous rabbits, Richard Adams played out a real life love story with Jennifer Tomkinson who he met at Oxford University.

The couple remained together for five years until they split up in May 1945 while he was serving with the Parachute Regiment in Europe.

In his autobiography published 45 years later, the successful author described of being 'hit hard' when the relationship came to an end because he felt he didn't have enough money to marry her.

But in one of 90 'lost' love letters he wrote to her that have now emerged, Adams was the one who broke it off - because he had a new lover.