Tarka the Otter
IN the 21st century, the cameraman, both still and moving, has taken the place of the writer as the most trusted observer of wildlife. However, in the days before sophisticated photography and documentary film-making were possible, the pen was still king, which is why, on first publication in 1927, Tarka the Otter was immediately hailed as a masterpiece.
A minutely observed account of the life of an otter in the Devon countryside of the Two Rivers (the Torridge and the Taw), it was ‘a true story’, or at least ‘as true as
