This is one of those books that had me googling everything....maps, streetview, various animals described in the text in wikipedia, including Mustelidae because did you know there are so many related animals in this vast family? I have heard or seen or read about weasels, stoats, martens, minks, etc...but I never really picked up on the differences.

Go to google streetview and locate the village of Nether Wallop and even the author's house/water mill and you will envy the beauty of the countryside where the author lives.

I had to search for articles about the author because I wanted to know his story and why he is writing this excellent natural history of this family of otters that live in and near his home. I found two....

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/men/thinking-man/angler-lost-fish-otters-fall-love/

https://forumpublications.co.uk/simon-cooper-fly-fishing-agent-chalk-stream-cons...

The author really needs to complete his biographical sketch here on Goodreads because his story is as interesting as his books.

I was immediately reminded of another natural history of the English countryside and forest, [a:Richard Fortey|213020|Richard Fortey|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1205096050p2/213020.jpg]'s [b:The Wood for the Trees: One Man's Long View of Nature|29496108|The Wood for the Trees One Man's Long View of Nature|Richard Fortey|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1510642955s/29496108.jpg|48765102]. Apparently England has no lack of excellent writers who care about the history and ecology of their country.

So, the book is about otters...it is elegantly written by a man who both fishes and writes for a living and it was totally engrossing from cover to cover because you can tell that Simon Cooper has totally fallen in love with this family living near his water mill. You also learn quite a bit about the history of otters in England and otters themselves along the way.

Excellent book. ( )

Otters are one of our apex predators in the UK, but after the Second World War, they almost went extinct due to environmental and other pressures. That they have slowly clawed their way back as the rivers and streams that they live in became less polluted. The fact that they now they can be found in every county in the land is a conservation success and should be applauded. They are almost mythical though, they are seldom glimpsed, even when going looking for them, you may only hear a splash. You will find evidence that they are sound though, their spraints are fairly visible and you’ll probably come across the scattered remains of supper every now and again.

Even after buying a watermill on a chalkstream in Hampshire Simon Cooper didn’t expect to see one either. As he moved around the lake and streams that came with his property he began to find the evidence that they were some nearby, but it was finding a family of otters in the mill race, just feet from his desk, that he realised that he was the intruder on their territory. So begins this transitory relationship with this mother and four cubs, as Cooper spent more time watching and following their trial and tribulations of growing up and learning how to swim and feed and playing as you’d expect otters to behave.

Cooper’s daily observations have given us this well-written tale of the elusive creature that is the otter. He has used some artistic licence to write the story of Kuschta and her cubs, how she moved into the lakes, the liaison with the father and how she goes about raising and training them to hunt and survive. The story side is woven in with a raft of solid facts and detail on these fascinating creatures following them through the seasons as they live and thrive around the mill. A really good book on that most evanescent of creatures and a worthy addition to anyone’s natural history library. ( )