MENTION HENRY WILLIAMSON and it brings to mind the cool waters of the Devonshire Taw and Torridge, of deep wooded combes, a dog otter named Tarka and its canine nemesis Deadlock. Tarka The Otter has remained in print since it was first published in 1927 and is still considered by many as the benchmark by which nature writers are judged.
Despite being an author who Ted Hughes said “made me feel the pathos of actuality in the natural world” through his animal series and discourses on English agrarian social history, Williamson was something of a townie. Born in 1885 in Lewisham it was not until his family moved to then “leafy” Ladywell that the boy enjoyed grass under his feet and muck in his nails.
On family holidays to Devon he immersed himself utterly in nature, vowing to live in the county as soon as he was able. He cycled up from Kent to the North Norfolk coast, encountering his first otter on the way. There he honed the hopeless and complete love of a convert for the wildlife-rich
