James Williams spent a lifetime otter watching, from his boyhood in the Lake District, to his adult life in Somerset. He taught English in Taunton, but his west-country residence gave him the opportunity to study and record the changing fortunes of this elusive and fascinating mammal, from its near-extinction in the mid-1980s to its remarkable, though precarious, recovery today.
Actively involved in many initiatives to monitor and aid the otter's restoration, he was Chairman of the Somerset Wildlife Trust’s Otter Group, and James continued to train and inspire a new generation of otter-enthusiasts through his popular training days and his role in various surveys, right up until his death in February 2014.
