Richard Adams was born in England in 1920.
Yes, he is a very interesting author. He wrote several books from the perspectives of the animals within the books. Plague dogs in particular is written from the perspective of the dogs who have escaped. We learn that they don't understand why they were being experimented on. Fortunately they escape.
He also wrote Watership Down in 1972 where that style continued.
Yes, Watership Down was about a group of rabbits who ran away from their warren after a rabbit foresaw it's destruction and their deaths. It was a construction site. That's also an excellent book. Returning to plague dogs one very interest part is when the dogs meet a fox. The fox speaks in a different accent, a geordie accent. That's a strong regional accent from part of the UK. It's interesting how Adams uses regional dialects to distinguish different species, in this cases dogs and foxes. Both books are highly recommended. You should read them! 
Richard Adams didn't start writing until 1966 when he was 46 years old.
Yes, I recall that he worked for a government organisation and started writing later in life. His writing style is very interesting. His books are full of substories. For example, in Watership Down the rabbits might stop and one chapter will be a story that the rabbits tell to themselves. This gives the book structure, stories within a story. Similarly in Plague Dogs at one point there are three threads of action running all interleaved. Fast paved writing!
Watership Down was a story that he made up on the spot during a car trip to tell his two daughters.
Possibly it's true that the essence of the story was made up for his daughters but the book is significantly longer than a short verbal tale and full of many more details. I've wondered if the hills in that book were the Malvern Hills but I don't know.
Watership Down also won the Guardian Fiction Award in 1972.
I didn't know that. however, it doesn't surprise me. Waterhsip Down is a fantastic book and quite unique in it's approach at that time specifically by telling the story entirely from the point of view of the animals involved. He was ahead of his time.