I just heard almost simultaneously that Carrie Fisher died today and Richard Adams (Watership Down etc.) on the 20th.

Oddly, despite the slave Leia bikini I was never incredibly attracted to Carrie Fisher - I could see she was a reasonably good actress once she got going, but for some reason she just wasn't my type. Give me Jacqueline Pierce's Servalan any day...

Adams could have been a much more influential figure than he was; Watership Down was outstanding, but none of his later books quite lived up to its promise.


Both of them mean rather more to me than most of this year's crop of celebrity deaths, but that's simply a personal preference. They'll be missed - so will all the rest.