Tarka The Otter

The classic story of an otter living in the Devonshire countryside which captures the feel of life in the wild as seen through the otter's own eyes.

Salar is a five-year-old salmon returning to the stream of his birth. He faces great dangers - cruising lampreys, poachers with their cruel nets and spears, sharp-eyed otters, cascading falls - all between Salar and his goal in the spawning sands.

Although rarely seen in the wild, the otter is admired for its playful character and graceful aquatic agility, fixed in the popular imagination through books and films such as Tarka the Otter and Ring of Bright Water. This is just a small part of its story, however: throughout history, the otter has been hunted for its fur and to prevent it from killing fish. Featuring numerous images from nature and culture, as well as examples from folklore, sports, and literature, this wide-ranging book also explores the movement against otter hunting, and the ongoing efforts promoting otter conservation. A fittingly lively study of its subject, Otter offers a new way of thinking about this much-loved but endangered animal.

DigiCat Publishing presents to you this special edition of "The Life Story of an Otter" by J. C. Tregarthen. DigiCat Publishing considers every written word to be a legacy of humankind. Every DigiCat book has been carefully reproduced for republishing in a new modern format. The books are available in print, as well as ebooks. DigiCat hopes you will treat this work with the acknowledgment and passion it deserves as a classic of world literature.

Shortlisted for THE WAINWRIGHT PRIZE 2017 ‘The best popular account of the lives of otters written so far’ Richard Shelton, Times Literary Supplement

After tough assignments as a Canadian diplomat abroad, Nicholas Coghlan and his wife Jenny unwind by sailing Bosun Bird, a 27foot sailboat, from Cape Town, South Africa, across the South Atlantic and into the stormy winter waters around Tierra del Fuego, South America. Coghlan recounts earlier adventures in Patagonia when, taking time off from his job as a schoolteacher in Buenos Aires in the late 1970s, he and Jenny explored the region of southern Argentina and Chile over three successive summers. This time, as they negotiate the labyrinth of channels and inlets around snow-covered Fireland, he reflects on voyages of past explorers: Magellan, Cook, Darwin, and others. Sailing enthusiasts and readers of true adventures will want to add Coghlan's world-wise narrative to their libraries.

With a stunning cover design inspired by the iconic fashion featured in the book, this beautiful hardback edition is a special Puffin Classic created in partnership with the world-famous V & A Museum. Featuring an exclusive foreword by Connie Karol Burks, an Assistant Curator in the Fashion, Textiles and Furniture Department at the V&A. Emma is clever, rich, beautiful and sees no need for marriage. An irrepressible matchmaker, she loves interfering in the romantic lives of others, until her matchmaking plans unravel, with consequences that she never expected. Jane Austen's novel of youthful exuberance, with its imperfect but charming heroine, is often seen as her most flawless work.

Edited and introductions by Roderick Watson. The Quarry Wood, although published well before Sunset Song, inhabits a similar world; the progress of its heroine could almost be the alternative story of a Chris Guthrie who did go to university. Compassionate and humorous, the grace and style of Shepherd’s prose is heightened by a superb ear for the vigorous language of the north-east. The Weatherhouse, Shepherd’s masterpiece, is an even more substantial achievement which belongs to the great line of Scottish fiction dealing with the complex interactions of small communities, and especially the community of women – a touching and hilarious network of mothers, daughters, spinsters and widows. It is also a striking meditation on the nature of truth, the power of human longing and the mystery of being. The third and final novel, A Pass in the Grampians, describes Jenny Kilgour’s coming of age as she has to choose between the kindly harshness of her grandfather’s life on a remote hill farm, and the vulgar and glorious energy of Bella Cassie, a local girl who left the community to pursue success as a singer, and has now returned to scandalise them all. The Living Mountain is a lyrical testament in praise of the Cairngorms. It is a work deeply rooted in Shepherd’s knowledge of the natural world, and a poetic and philosophical meditation on our longing for high and holy places. This is the first omnibus edition of Shepherd’s prose works – her sensitivity and powers of observation raise her work far above the status of regional literature and into the front rank of Scottish writing.