Henry Williamson is best known for his wildlife stories, especially Tarka the Otter: His Joyful Water-Life and Death in the Country of the Two Rivers (1927) and Salar the Salmon (1935), in which he conveys with extraordinary immediacy the lives of various wild creatures in a finely realized natural environment in north Devon. His range is wider, however: he wrote closely observed and deeply felt nature essays, absorbing autobiographical books, and two remarkable novel sequences: the tetralogy The Flax of Dream (1921-1928) and the vast fifteen-part roman-fleuve A Chronicle of Ancient Sunlight (1951- 1969). His work shows a consistent development not only in literary art but also in the presentation of social, moral, spiritual, and political themes.

Henry William Williamson was born on 1 December 1895 at 66 Braxfield Road, Brockley, in southeast London to William Leopold Williamson, a bank clerk, and Gertrude Eliza Leaver Williamson. His maternal grandmother came from a long line...