Tarka the Otter

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Tarka the Otter: His Joyful Water-Life and Death in the Country of the Two Rivers is a novel by Henry Williamson. The book narrates the experience of an otter. It was first published in 1927 by G.P. Putnam's Sons, with an introduction by the Hon. Sir John Fortescue, K.C.V.O..

1 Plot summary
2 Major themes
3 Awards and nominations
4 Film, TV or theatrical adaptations
5 Trivia
6 Notable editions
7 External links

[edit] Plot summary

The plot begins with Tarka as a cub growing up in a den with his mother and siblings. As a cub, he learns how to clean himself, swim, and catch fish. When his home is attacked by hunters, he and his wild family must abandon it to flee from danger. Joining up with some other otters, the family continue to travel. At some point he loses his family and his mother forgets she even had a cub named Tarka. From now on he must fend for himself. He continues to be persecuted, and so he is constantly on the run from the hunters. In the end, as he is once again being chased by the pack of hounds, his life ends in a heroic deathmatch with the fearsome dog Deadlock, who dies with him.

[edit] Major themes

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[edit] Awards and nominations

The book won the Hawthornden Prize. It features illustrations by Charles Tunnicliffe.

[edit] Film, TV or theatrical adaptations

The novel has been adapted into a film: Tarka the Otter.

In 1974, Williamson began working on a script for a film treatment of the novel, but it was not regarded as suitable to film. Filming for the movie went on unknown to him. The movie, narrated by Peter Ustinov, was released in 1979, with a screenplay by Gerald Durrell.

"I could always appreciate the joy and wonder in the countryside so richly expressed in ‘Tarka the Otter’, but I could also see a darkness that was a mystery to me. A brooding presence lies submerged that periodically surfaces in the unfeeling brutality that often occurs throughout the narrative. If Tarka and Deadlock have killed each other the story becomes a classic tragedy, which is highly ambivalent - the eternal struggle perhaps?

"This is a tale of ruthless struggle for survival set against the boundless wonder of Creation-a tapestry of light, innocence and graphic purity that is at every juncture, menaced by hidden malice. It is a cathartic celebration of life and nature under, in Henry’s terminology, eternal and ancient sunlight - the very antithesis of the terrible war with which the author was struggling to come to terms. True to nature, it is brutally honest and yet brilliantly metaphorical - there can be little doubt it was fashioned by a master-craftsman."

—Peter Talbot, [1]

Williamson was very ill when filming started and died before its completion. His son and daughter-in-law are actually in the film however.

It was voted the 98th greatest family film in a Channel 4 poll.

The soundtrack for the film was composed by David Fanshawe and performed by Tommy Reilly.

[edit] Trivia

The Tarka Trail, a series of footpaths and cycle paths around Devon, England and the Tarka Line railway line from Exeter to Barnstaple in Devon, both take their names from the novel.

Anthony Phillips, formerly a guitarist with Genesis, recorded a proposed soundtrack to the 1979 film of Tarka the Otter which was not used. In 2001, he collaborated with Henry Williamson's son, Harry, to complete the sessions and release them as Tarka, a companion album to the novel of the same name.

[edit] Notable editions

1927, UK, G. P. Putnams Sons, 1927, Hardback
1965, UK, Bodley Head, 1965, Hardback
1971, UK, Puffin Books ISBN 0-14-030060-0, January 1971, Paperback (C.F. Tunnicliffe, Illustrator)
1981, USA, Nelson Thornes ISBN 0-333-30602-3, March 1981, Hardcover (C.F. Tunnicliffe, Illustrator)
1982, USA, Salem House Publishers ISBN 0-370-30919-7, 1982, Paperback
1990, USA, Beacon Press ISBN 0-8070-8507-3, 1990, Paperback (Concord Library Series)
1995, UK, Puffin Books ISBN 0-14-036621-0, June 1995, Paperback (Annabel Large, Illustrator)