White knuckles and wide eyes
Ninety years after it was published, Henry Williamson’s Tarka the Otter still holds its own as one of the greatest pieces of writing about the British countryside. I first discovered Tarka when I was 13 years old, and I loved the rich, flowing language that followed the life of an otter in the West Country.
Crucially, Tarka is not a cute little Disney character, but a real animal with strange and compelling instincts. His world is full of magic, but author Henry Williamson does not dwell upon it unnecessarily in the way many modern writers would. For every moment of joy and pleasure, there is an equivalent note of terror or darkness to match it. In many ways, the book could be read as a
