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There had always been otters in the stream running through Farthing Wood – and that had never been a problem for the other animals before but when there is a shortage of fish in the stream, the otters are forced to hunt on land. The otters are taking valuable prey and the foxes and other Farthing Wood animals have to compete for food. Lean Vixen is determined to protect her family from starvation, and that means deciding on a plan to drive the otters out once and for all.

About the Author

Colin Dann was born in Richmond, Surrey, in 1943. After leaving school he worked for a textile company before his real love – the world of books – brought him a job in publishing in London. His first book, The Animals of Farthing Wood, was inspired by his love of wildlife and was published in 1979. It was an immediate success, winning the Arts Council of Great Britain’s National Book Award for Children’s Literature. Six sequels and a prequel have followed and in 1992 a major animation series appeared on BBC television.

In addition to the Farthing Wood books Colin has written many other animal stories, including a trilogy about a pride of African lions. He lives with his wife Susie in a converted Oast House on the Sussex/Kent border.

To Caroline Roberts
with much appreciation for many years of
enthusiastic support and advice

Preface

THE AIR WAS quite still. Starlight bathed the frosty ground with silver. The woodland seemed to be drowsing in the silence of a winter’s night. A lean fox trotted noiselessly beneath the trees, seeking shelter before sunrise. A vixen’s cry – one he recognized – caused him to halt suddenly, then change direction. He answered the cry with three short yaps.

The vixen was standing under a huge beech tree, her body pressed against its smooth grey trunk. She too was lean; leaner than the fox. She called again. The fox ran towards her.

‘It’s for a different reason this time,’ the vixen said. ‘Come and see.’ She led him through the Wood to a clearing. In the clearing several animals were darting about, chasing one another playfully. These were otters. The foxes stood and watched them for a while.

‘They are,’ came the answer. ‘The otters. This is my hunting territory. I’ve told them to leave, but they only mock me.’

Lean Fox turned to look at his companion. She was regarding him steadily; expectantly. He turned away again. ‘They don’t appear to be doing any harm,’ he murmured.

‘Of course they’re doing harm,’ Lean Vixen corrected him irritably. ‘They’re snapping up all the voles. What am I to eat?’

Lean Fox’s eyes widened. ‘Otters? Killing voles?’ he queried in surprise. ‘Why would they do that? They’re fishing animals.’

‘How do I know why?’ the vixen barked. ‘Because they’re hungry, I suppose. I thought you’d be some help,’ she added disappointedly.

‘Well, I . . .’ Lean Fox began awkwardly. ‘You know, otters are special creatures, aren’t they?’

‘Oh, not that old story again,’ the vixen sighed. ‘That’s all we ever hear. Well, what am I to do then? Starve?’

‘Isn’t there anywhere else you can go? I mean, there are voles and mice throughout the Wood. Plenty for everyone.’

‘It’s difficult poaching another fox’s territory,’ Lean Vixen replied. ‘Besides, what’s to stop these precious otters scouring other areas once they’ve laid this one waste. They’re lethal hunters. I’ve seen them in action.’

Lean Fox felt he had to do something. The vixen was relying on him. He trotted forward. As he approached, the otters stopped gambolling for a moment and looked at him. They showed no fear.

‘Why must you take our prey?’ Lean Fox yapped boldly, aware the vixen’s eyes were on him. ‘Don’t you have enough of your own?’

The largest otter, a mature adult and a sleek, healthy-looking animal replied airily, ‘No, we don’t, although what business it is of yours I fail to see.’

Lean Fox’s hackles rose. ‘It’s my business because voles are a fox’s staple diet,’ he growled.

‘Really? How interesting,’ the sleek otter answered sarcastically. ‘Perhaps you’d better improve your hunting technique.’

The younger otters giggled in a kind of high-pitched whistle. Lean Fox tried to chase them away. They began to show off, tumbling and somersaulting and leaping around, but always keeping well out of his reach. The otters had a wonderfully fluid kind of agility. Lean Fox returned to the vixen’s side.

‘I don’t think there’s much I can do at present,’ he muttered. ‘They simply make me look foolish.’

‘Something will have to be done,’ Lean Vixen declared. ‘Why should foxes give way to these . . . these . . . animal clowns?’

Interesting Facts

It was first printed for a children’s book club as two separate paperbacks titled Escape from Danger and The Way to White Deer Park. All subsequent editions were printed as one complete story.

The Animals of Farthing Wood TV series cost &6 million pounds to make, and was viewed by an estimated sixty million people across Europe when it was first aired.

Where did the Story Come From?

Colin Dann says: ‘When the TV series was due to be aired, my editor at that time suggested a prequel to The Animals of Farthing Wood. I thought this was a good idea. There were references in The Animals of Farthing Wood to earlier events, such as the Oath of Common Safety, when the wood’s inhabitants gathered to discuss the threat to their livelihoods. So in the prequel I was able to show how that meeting was inconclusive, but could be viewed as a kind of omen of the more important meeting a generation on, when the animals finally bonded and agreed to flee. The other factor – the sudden arrival of human developers – needed to be explained too. The disappearance of the otters was crucial to that and set it in motion. I wanted the visionary Sage Hedgehog to warn the animals about this and the dangers to come and, though he was ignored, for him to retain the conviction that, by working together, they would eventually find their salvation.’

Guess Who?

A ‘The mice are here for any hunter to catch. It’s not my fault you weren’t skilful enough to catch them first.’

C ‘You were wrong to make war with the otters,’ he told the foxes. ‘You will rue the day you drove them out.’

D ‘I’m sure everything is going to work out for us. It’s as though we have earned our right to survive because we’re the last Farthing Wood otters. We have to do so for the sake of the rest of them.’

E ‘I intend to make a full recovery. I shall need to build up my strength again quickly.’

Words Glorious Words!

Here are some words and meanings from the story. You can also look them up in the dictionary or online for fuller explanations!

Quiz

a) Because the humans were building a new road so they needed to plan how they would survive

Make and Do

If you care about forests and jungles, and the wildlife that lives in them, then you can start your own conservation project at home by planting your first tree. It’s easier than you might think . . .

YOU WILL NEED:

❋ A plant pot or a plastic container with holes in the bottom

❋ Gardening gloves

❋ Small stones or grit

❋ Soil

❋ Compost

❋ Some tree seeds

❋ A little water

1 Go for a walk in a park with your parent or guardian and collect some seeds. You could try a conker from a horse chestnut tree, acorns from an oak tree or helicopter seeds from a sycamore tree, or all three!

3 Put grit or a few small stones into the bottom of your container to help with drainage.

5 Place your seeds on top of the soil, and then fill the rest of the container up to the top with more soil and compost.

7 Place your pot in a shady spot outside. It’s best to plant your seed in autumn so it can get really cold in winter. The cold will help your seed germinate and sprout in the springtime.

8 Check your pot every few weeks to makesure it’s not too dry. If it is, then give it a little more water.

9 Wait until spring to see if your seed has sprouted a shoot. It is a good idea to plant more than one pot to increase your chances of growing a healthy tree.

Did You Know?

Otters have very sensitive paws to help them find shellfish in the mud at the bottom of rivers.

Foxes have whiskers on their legs as well as around their faces, which they use to help them find their way.

A hedgehog has about five thousand prickly spines, which they use to protect themselves against predators.

Owls can turn their heads up to 270 degrees. This is useful because they can’t move their eyeballs around.

Puffin Writing Tip

At the end of the month, read back through your diary and edit out the boring bits.

If you’re really brave, share your diary with your parents or guardian for feedback!

If you have enjoyed this book, you may like to read Mrs Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Robert C. O’Brien in which Mrs Frisby struggles to protect her family of mice and receives some unexpected help from a group of highly intelligent rats . . .

11. In the Library

THE TUNNEL LED gently downwards, and after the first dozen steps they were in darkness. Mrs Frisby could see nothing at all. Behind her Mr Ages limped along; ahead she could hear the scuffle of Justin’s footsteps. She followed the sound blindly. Then she heard his voice.

‘Just walk straight forward, Mrs Frisby. There’s nothing to trip over, and nothing to bump into. If you get off course, you’ll feel the wall.’ He added: ‘The dark part doesn’t last long.’

Now what did he mean by that? She thought it over for a minute or two as she walked and had just decided to ask him, when to her surprise she saw ahead of her a faint glow. A light! But how could there be a light down so far? ‘There, we’re through it,’ said Justin cheerfully. ‘I know that blackout bit must be annoying the first time, but it’s necessary.’

‘I could tell you,’ Justin said, ‘but if you’ll wait fifteen seconds, you’ll see for yourself.’

In a few more steps the tunnel – Mrs Frisby could now discern, dimly, its shape and direction – took a turn to the right, and she did see for herself. She stopped in astonishment.

Ahead of her stretched a long, well-lit hallway. Its ceiling and walls were a smoothly curved arch, its floor hard and flat, with a soft layer of carpet down the middle. The light came from the walls, where every foot or so on both sides a tiny light bulb had been recessed and the hole in which it stood, like a small window, had been covered with a square of coloured glass – blue, green or yellow. The effect was that of stained-glass windows in sunlight.

Justin was watching her and smiling. ‘Do you like it? The carpet and the coloured glass we don’t really need. Some of the wives did that on their own, just for looks. They cut the glass, believe it or not, from old bottles. The carpet was a piece of trim they found somewhere.’

‘Five,’ said Justin agreeably. ‘The lights’ – they were the very small, very bright twinkling kind – ‘we found on trees. In fact, most of our lights come from trees. Not until after Christmas, of course – about New Year. The big light bulbs we have trouble handling.’

Mrs Frisby was familiar with electricity (her husband, who knew all kinds of things, had once explained it to her). At night she had seen the lamps shining in Mr Fitzgibbon’s house, and at Christmas time the lights that his sons strung on a pine tree outside.

‘It was like picking fruit,’ Justin said rather dreamily. ‘The annual light bulb harvest. We had to go quite far up the road before we had enough. Even so, it took two Christmases.’

They continued along the corridor, which curved always slightly to the right, so Mrs Frisby could never really tell how long it was, and which soon began to incline more steeply into the ground. Mrs Frisby noticed that the air, which should have been dank and damp so deep underground, was on the contrary fresh and clean, and she thought she could even detect a very faint breeze blowing past her ears as she moved.

In a few more minutes the hall widened abruptly into a large oval chamber. Here the lights were set in the ceiling; at the far end, Mrs Frisby could see, the long tunnel continued and looked as if it slanted upward again – perhaps to another entrance, a back door. Was this, then, their destination, the main hall of the rats? But if so, where were all the other rats? The room was entirely empty – not even a stick of furniture.

Then she saw that off one side of the chamber there was a stairway leading down, and beside it a small door. Justin led them to the door.

‘For freight only,’ he said with a grin at Mr Ages. ‘But considering your limp, I think we can make an exception. The stairs wouldn’t be easy.’

Mrs Frisby looked at the stairway. It went down in a spiral and each step was neatly inlaid with a rectangular piece of slate. She could not tell how far down it led, since after the first turn of the spiral she could see no more, but she had a feeling it was a long way down. As Justin said, it would be hard for Mr Ages.

‘After you,’ he said. Mrs Frisby went in, the others followed, and the door swung shut. On the wall were two knobs. Justin pushed one of them, and Mrs Frisby, who had never been in a lift before, gasped and almost fell as she felt the floor suddenly sink beneath her feet. Justin reached out a hand to steady her.

‘Not quite. We’re going down, but we’ve got two strong cables and an electric motor holding us.’

Still, Mrs Frisby held her breath during the rest of the descent, until finally the small lift came to a gentle stop and Justin opened the door. Then she breathed again and looked out.

The room before her was at least three times as big as the one they had just left, and corridors radiated from it in as many directions as petals from a daisy. Directly opposite the lift an open arch led into what looked like a still larger room – seemingly some kind of an assembly hall, for it had a raised platform at one end.

And now there were rats. Rats by dozens – standing and talking in groups of twos and threes and fours, rats walking slowly, rats hurrying, rats carrying papers. As Mrs Frisby stepped from the elevator, it became obvious that strangers were a rarity down there, for the hubbub of a dozen conversations stopped abruptly, and all heads turned to look at her. They did not look hostile, nor were they alarmed – since her two companions were familiar to them – but merely curious. Then, as quickly as it had died out, the sound of talking began again, as if the rats were too polite to stand and stare. But one of them, a lean rat with a scarred face, left his group and walked towards them.

‘Justin. Mr Ages. And I see we have a guest.’ He spoke graciously, with an air of quiet dignity, and Mrs Frisby noticed two more things about him. First, the scar on his face ran across his left eye, and over this eye he wore a black patch, fastened by a cord around his head. Second, he carried a satchel – rather like a handbag – by a strap over his shoulders.

‘A guest whose name you will recognize,’ said Justin. ‘She is Mrs Jonathan Frisby. Mrs Frisby, this is Nicodemus.’

‘A name I recognize indeed,’ said the rat called Nicodemus. ‘Mrs Frisby – are you perhaps aware of this? – your late husband was one of our greatest friends. You are welcome here.’

‘Thank you,’ said Mrs Frisby, but she was more puzzled than ever. ‘In fact, I did not know that you knew my husband. But I’m glad to hear it, because I’ve come to ask your help.’

Otters Abroad

THERE HAD ALWAYS been otters in Farthing Wood. They lived on the fringe of the woodland along the banks of the stream. There they made their homes and dived for fish and frogs and mussels. Over the years their numbers had steadily declined as the resources of the stream – and indeed the pond – had dwindled almost to exhaustion. But as long as there were otters, however few, Farthing Wood was safe and the site protected from development.

1943	Born on 10 March in Richmond, Surrey
1966	Begins his career at the publishing house, William Collins, Sons & Co.
1978	Stops working at William Collins, Sons & Co to become a full-time writer
1979	The Animals of Farthing Wood is published by John Goodchild publishers
1980	The Animals of Farthing Wood wins the Arts Council National Award for Children’s Literature
1981	In the Grip of Winter, the second novel in The Animals of Farthing Wood series, is published
1982	Fox’s Feud, the third novel in the series, is published
1983	The Fox Cub Bold, the fourth novel in the series, is published
1985	The Siege of White Deer Park, the fifth novel in the series, is published
1989	In the Path of the Storm, the sixth novel in the series, is published
1992	Battle for the Park, the final story in the series, is published
1993	The Animals of Farthing Wood is adapted for a children’s television series and is first aired in Germany, Belgium, Ireland and the United Kingdom, followed a little later by France
1994	The Adventure Begins, the prequel to The Animals of Farthing Wood series, is published

holt	an otter’s nest
conservation	the protection of wildlife or objects of interest and historical value
eerie	mysterious, frightening or disturbing
resolute	to be determined to do something
spate	when a river has more water than usual and is flowing very fast
penance	an act that shows sorrow or a feeling of regret for something you have done

Contents

About the Book