Tarka The Otter
Subtitle: His Joyful Water-Life and Death in the Two Rivers
Contributors: Illustrated by C. F. Tunnicliffe A.R.A.; Editor: Kaye Webb
Edition: Puffin
Series: PS60
Publisher: Penguin Books
Published: 1965
Place of publication: Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England
Language: eng
Format: Paperback
Number of pages: 240
Subjects: Wildlife
Genres: Fiction
First sentence: Twilight over meadow and water, the eve-star shining above the hill, and Old Nog the heron crying kra-a-ark! as his slow dark wings carried him down to the estuary.
Description: This story of an otter is as true as long observation and keen insight could make it. It lets you live with Tarka and see at his level (that is much closer to the ground than our eye level) the wild life [sic] of that stretch of Devon country which runs from Dartmoor to the sea, between the rivers Torridge and Taw. With a good map you can follow almost every step of the story, every twist and turn of the rivers and the sandy stretches at the Estuary.

To read Tarka for the first time is a tremendous experience whether you are a boy or girl, grown man or woman; and it will be strange if, thereafter, you do not look with new understanding at quiet country places where birds and beasts lead such dangerous lives. It would be a pity to try it too young, but most people over ten will enjoy it.

This new edition has been specially revised by the author.
Notes: Dedication: William Henry Rogers
Original price: 3'6
First published: 1927
Table of contents: class: section