Pride and Prejudice screenwriter is attacked in dog row

Andrew Davies, 71, who adapted the BBC's version of Pride And Prejudice, was punched in the eye, headbutted and knocked to the ground by the screaming and swearing thug.

The dog owner snapped and launched into his attack after Mr Davies tried to call off the larger dogs, feigning a kick at one of them.

Then, as Mr Davies lay dazed on the ground, the thug pulled up his hood to hide his face and sprinted off.

"It was dog rage," said Bafta-winner Mr Davies, who earns up to £200,000 per script.

He added: "I wish I'd had my sword with me – or a riding whip."

Mr Davies told how he had tried to defend his timid rescue dog Daisy – an adult mongrel who looks like an alsatian puppy – from the snarling bull terriers.

"I drove one of them off," he said. "I shouted, 'Go on! Get out of it!' and sort of aimed a kick at it, which was never really meant to connect, and didn't.

"The dog got the message and went off. But his owner shouted, 'Don't you ******* touch my dog!' and ran up and headbutted me and punched me in the eye.

"It knocked me clean off my feet. He was a big guy and I am quite little."

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Mr Davies, who adapted the Bridget Jones books for the screen, said the incident in Abbey Fields, near Kenilworth Castle in Warwickshire, left him stunned and his dog "terrified".

He suffered painful facial injuries and is now recovering at home.

The former Warwick University lecturer added: "I thought I was doing this guy a favour because he couldn't control his dogs.

"I thought I could get them to go away with him, rather than carry on harassing me.

"It all happened so quickly I didn't have time to be terrified. It was just such a surprise.

"Oddly enough, it seemed to perk me up a bit, all the adrenaline flooding in.

"You know what they say, a narrow escape from an accident, that sort of thing, can make you more alive.

"But it's not something I would go out seeking because I have got a bloody sore eye, which has been all the colours of the rainbow.

"It is bright green at the moment."

Davies admitted he felt shaken once the adrenaline rush subsided.

He added: "You don't expect that sort of thing. Kenilworth is always thought of as being a rather staid sort of place.

"We have our fair share of yobs, but not many serious criminals."

He shunned going to hospital to get his injuries checked out.

But Warwickshire police confirmed they are looking for a 6ft man in his early 20s.

Mr Davies is one of Britain's most successful screenwriters and has won a string of international awards, including five Baftas and an Emmy.

As well as Jane Austen's Pride And Prejudice, starring Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle, his works include the Eighties comedy A Very Peculiar Practice and further screenplays for literary classics Middlemarch and Vanity Fair.

He courted controversy with his BBC adaptation of lesbian drama Tipping The Velvet.