Both Otter Country and Nightwalk were realised over extended spans of time. As a child Miriam Darlington was handed the skull of an otter by her grandfather, the Oxford professor of biology and genetics C D Darlington. It was an experience that sparked a lifelong fascination with these elusive and beautiful creatures, which impelled her to travel the length of Britain. Chris Yates, a distinguished and prolific writer on fishing, began planning what would become this book in 1971, deciding, after some earlier attempts to begin it, to write ‘a description of a meandering walk that begins in the evening and ends at sunrise’, an endeavour that has resulted in a book of rare insight and beauty. 

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