Tarka the Otter
This was a used library book that came from England. Not too worn, and much less expensive than a collector edition. Henry Williamson wrote this over three years starting in 1923, after he returned from the Great War that preceded an even Greater War. He settled in North Devon to come to terms with PTDS, and became obsessed with otters.
Here's the full title from the inside cover. They liked prolix titles back in those days for some reason:
The title just drips with sarcasm. Tarka's life was anything but joyful. It pretty much sucked, actually. With but one exception, every bit of that suckitude was inflicted on him by humans. The one exception was when an owl confused a very young Tarka for a rabbit, and the owl got himself killed when Tarka and his mother attacked instead of cowering like a rabbit. Other than that, none of the other animals he met tried to do him any harm.
There are several supplements where the pristine pages begin as very few seemed to bother reading these. One is The Gentleman's River
That was the name given to the Taw by the otter hunters who stalked its banks when I was a young man with an ambition to write the story of a wild otter. I was a stranger, and usually walked alone, but one day I dared to say to the Master [of the Chariton Hunt]: "Why, Sir, is the Taw called the 'Gentleman's River'?"
"Well the inns along the Taw, unlike those of the Torridge, are so placed that we may refresh ourselves at luncheon".
The Master was dressed in white breeches, blue coat and worsted stockings, yellow waistcoat, white pot hat, and heavy boots of the kind usually worn by labouring men...He was a kindly man, carrying a six-foot ash pole taller than himself, its many silver rings engraved with the places and dates of otters killed, with zodiacal signs denoting male or female. Often one saw him leaning on his ash-pole, meditatively stroking drooping yellow mustache...
It was nearly forty years ago. Otter hunting was then a passtime, an occasion for seasonal gatherings along the river banks of many who had known one another since childhood. In some of the inns by the bridges -- I remember especially The Malt Scoop -- we sat down to wonderful teas with bowls of cream, stewed fruit, cut-rounds, kitchen made butter glistening with dew, and delicious sausage tolls, after the day's sport. Every August there was a dance, with programmes embossed with an otter's mask in blue -- the men wearing white kid gloves, tail-coats, tall wing collars and white ties with stiff starched shirts and patent leather pumps. We danced in the Assembly Rooms, the floor swung on hidden chains; or at one of the North Devon houses, now, alas, lived in no longer by their owner-families.
Not all the otters found and hunted in the waters of the Two Rivers were killed. Our local pack, the Chariton, lost on an average of two out of three hunted otters... I was glad when this happened; my sympathies were always with the hunted beast...
Otters in the West Country are not often hunted nowadays. The Cheriton Hunt is no more
I wonder how that happened. See what Williamson did here? He infiltrated the Chariton Hunt to gather intel for his anti-hunt agit-prop. He fucked these assholes over good and hard. Then he did this to twist the knife he plunged into their backs:
Dedicated
to the memory of
WILLIAM HENRY ROGERS
Tutor in College at Eton and Master
of the Chariton Hunt
How's that for a "Fuck you" to the Master? He figuratively rammed all six feet of that ash-pole with its many silver bands right up his ass. I really like Henry Williamson: that was a master stroke. Revenge, as they say, is a dish best served cold.
Henry Williamson would spend decades looking to get Tarka the Otter made into a movie. He proposed it to the Majors: Disney, MGM, Columbia, Warner Bros and they all told him it wan't possible. Then he found a small independent production company willing to take on this project.
Peter Talbot of the UK Otter Trust was dubious at first, wanting nothing to do with the making of another animal movie, as he knew what usually happened to the animals after the movie was made. Williamson explained that this movie would make otter hunters look really bad. Talbot agreed. That was in 1977, and back in those days, there was no CGI. Talbot agreed to hand raise an otter for the movie.
Tarka the Otter debuted in 1979. Within eight months, otter hunting would be made illegal in the UK. Williamson's life long quest became a reality.