One night while the moon gleamed out of the clouds in the east, a young female otter gave birth to three cubs in a hollow oak by a woodland river. The pride of the litter was Tarka, "Little Water Wanderer," the name the ancients gave otters in Britain's long-vanished tribal past.

First published in 1927, this classic story of Tarka's life in the country of the Two Rivers has charmed generations of readers. It pictures a never-to-be-forgotten rural England and, through the character of Tarka, lets us experience nature in her infinite variety.