Book description
In the wild there is no safety. The otter cub Tarka grows up with his
mother and sisters, learning to swim, catch fish - and to fear the cry
of the hunter and the flash of the metal trap. Soon he must fend for
himself, travelling through rivers, woods, moors, ponds and out to sea,
sometimes with the female otters White-tip and Greymuzzle, always on the
run. Eventually, chased by a pack of hounds, he meets his nemesis, the
fearsome dog Deadlock, and must fight for his life.
Henry Williamson is regarded by many as Britain's finest nature
writer. He was born in London in 1895 but his work is rooted in the
north Devon countryside where he went to live after being deeply
affected by his experiences in the First World War. He published some
fifty books, a mix of country stories, most famously Tarka the
Otter and Salar the Salmon, and autobiographical fiction,
including the fifteen-volume novel cycle, A Chronicle of Ancient
Sunlight. He died in 1977.
Jeremy Gavron is the author of five books, including The Last
Elephant: An African Quest, and three novels, Moon,
The Book of Israel, which won the Encore Award, and An
Acre of Barren Ground.
