Salar the Salmon

By: Henry Williamson, Michael Morpurgo

Narrated by: James Murray

The inspirational story of struggle for survival, published in aid of the Atlantic Salmon Trust.

From the pen of Henry Williamson, author of Tarka the Otter, comes the story of Salar - the ‘leaper’ - a five-year-old salmon returning to the stream of his birth.

Salar’s migration through the rivers of Devon, surviving porpoises, seals, nets, fishermen, otters, poachers and weirs, is one of nature’s great journeys. Intense, brilliantly imagined and described from Salar’s point of view, this is a vivid and unsentimental picture of the people and wildlife of a river and its estuary.

Originally published in 1935, Salar the Salmon combines Henry Williamson’s great talent as a writer with his insight as a naturalist.

This recording was made by James Murray (Age Before Beauty, Cucumber, Defiance, Primeval, Cutting It) both to share his fascination with the nobility and complexity of nature and to raise funds for the Atlantic Salmon Trust, an organisation that since 1967 has raised awareness of the plight of salmon both inland and at sea and encouraged and advocated conservation. Strathmore Publishing will donate all royalties received from the audiobook to the Trust, and reader, producers and studio have all given their services without fee. Michael Morpurgo contributes the introduction and writes, ‘It is a rare gift for a storyteller to tell a tale so deeply engaging that the reader...never wants it to end. Henry Williamson is just such a story-maker poet.’

©1935 Henry Williamson Estate (P)2018 Strathmore Publishing Ltd

Critic reviews

"A rare and beautiful book that should take its place as a classic among the few that are written at once with a poet's insight and a naturalist's knowledge." (New York Times)