SIMON Cooper was compelled to write a book on otters after he found he was sharing his home with a family of the creatures.

He tells Joanna Davis, from the Dorset Echo, of his life with otters and how you can catch a glimpse of them in Dorset.

Most of us have never seen an otter in the wild before.

This is despite a fully grown male being 4ft long from nose to tail and weighing around 22lbs — about the same as a beagle dog.

They seem so elusive they've almost become mythical creatures.

But, as author Simon Cooper tells me, after being on the verge of extinction 15 years ago, otters are around and very much thriving in Dorset rivers.

They have even been spotted by the River Frome where it runs through the centre of the county town Dorchester.

There are also plenty of otters at Ilsington, close to Tincleton.

Simon said: "There are long stretches of the Frome that are teeming with otters. They can also be seen in Wimborne by the River Allen.

"The best way to spot them is to look for evidence in the daytime that they've been around. Then the best time to see them is as it's getting dark. You can see and hear them at about 6.30pm.

"If you sit still you will spot them on the move as they travel a few miles a night."

Simon, who lives in Nether Wallop, near Andover, Hampshire, hosts fly-fishing courses. He has previously written the book Life of a Chalkstream.

When he bought his abandoned water mill straddling a chalkstream, little did he know that he would come to share the mill with a family of wild otters.

After observing them at close quarters and developing an extraordinarily close relationship with the family, Simon decided to write The Otters' Tale.

He said: "It was strange that this chance to write about otters just dropped into my lap.

"Even though they were eating my trout I found them to be slightly endearing in a stand-offish way. They are like aquatic cats, always chasing each other, always making noise. You can never get to touch them. It makes them very elusive."

In The Otters' Tale Simon interweaves the personal story of the female otter Kuschta, who moves into his mill, with the natural history of the otter in the British Isles.

He poses the question of why otters don't feature more in British folklore and asks why more pubs aren't named after these semi-aquatic mammals, who appear to be overshadowed by foxes, badgers and hares.

He said: "They might not feature much because you don't see that much of them as they are nocturnal. They were very populous until the mid 1950s.

"Now they've come back from the brink of extinction I think a lot of people don't know they are there.

"They could be swimming by your feet under the water in the river by Dorchester and you wouldn't know they are there because they are quite secretive.

"I genuinely wanted to tell the tale of them because they became entwined in my life.

"I hope people realise that it's a huge ecological success story."

Legal protection, better environmental oversight of the watercourses and an explosion in the crayfish population has helped otters to thrive after their population reached its lowest point in the 1990s. A survey in 2011 found otters living in all 48 English counties.

Although books on otters have been written previously - Tarka the Otter and Ring of Bright Water being just two in the canon, Simon thinks his has something different to offer.

"I haven't read Tarka the Otter since I was 12 but I do know one thing about my book that makes it very different to the others — it has a happy ending.

"There seems to be a tradition of otter books ending badly!"

Simon's otter family had a much happier fate, with Kuschta and her offspring thriving against the odds, which are extremely steep, given that only one otter in three makes it past their second birthday and on to sexual maturity.

He said: "I hope people read the book and really get to like otters and gain knowledge about where they live and what they're like."

Although the main events in Simon's book take place during 2014 and 2015, Kuschta is still going strong and has returned to the mill this winter with a new family of three pups, now five months old.

Simon said: "They arrive at the mill two nights out of three, staying all night, but are most active soon after dark and in the early hours of the morning, well before dawn.

"Collectively they terrify the mill cat Jaffa, who hides indoors whenever they are about.

"Since Christmas they have reduced the population of the trout lake from more than 100 to just 7.

"Kuschta is a particularly productive female; consecutive litters of four then three are unusual. This may be her last litter."

Simon added: "Kuschta is five years old and coming towards the end of her life. I will be sad when she does pass away but she will be replaced by one of her daughters. There's always a roving pack of displaced otters on the move."

The Otters' Tale by Simon Cooper is published on March 27 by William Collins and is priced at £16.99.