Qyeer Places:
Elrig House, Newton Stewart DG8 9RF, UK
St Cyprian's School, 67 Summerdown Rd, Eastbourne BN20 8DQ, UK
University of Oxford, Oxford, Oxfordshire OX1 3PA
Isle of Soay, United Kingdom
Sandaig, Mallaig PH41 4PL, UK
9 Paultons Square, Chelsea, London SW3, UK
Eilean Bàn, United Kingdom
Gavin
Maxwell FRSL, FIAL, FZS (Sc.), FRGS[2]
(15 July 1914 – 7 September 1969) was a Scottish naturalist and author, best
known for his nonfiction writing and his work with otters. He wrote the book
Ring of Bright Water (1960) about how he brought an otter back from
Iraq and raised it in Scotland. The otter was of a previously unknown
sub-species which was subsequently named after Maxwell. Ring of Bright
Water sold more than a million copies and was made into a film starring
Bill Travers and Virginia McKenna in 1969. The title Ring of Bright Water
was taken from the poem "The Marriage of Psyche" by Kathleen Raine, who said
in her autobiography that Maxwell had been the love of her life.
Gavin Maxwell was the youngest son of Lieutenant-Colonel Aymer Maxwell and
Lady Mary Percy, fifth daughter of the seventh Duke of Northumberland. His
paternal grandfather, Sir Herbert Maxwell, was an archaeologist, politician
and natural historian.[2]
Maxwell was raised in the small village of Elrig, near Port William, in
Wigtownshire, south-western Scotland. Maxwell's relatives still live in the
area and the family's ancient estate and grounds are in nearby Monreith.
Maxwell's education took place at a succession of preparatory and public
schools, including the sporty Heddon Court School[3]
at East Barnet, St Cyprian's School, where he found encouragement for his
interest in natural history, and Stowe School. In The Rocks Remain, he
relates how family pressure led him to take a degree in Estate Management at
Hertford College, Oxford, where he spent his time pursuing sporting and
leisure activities instead of studying. He cheated his way through the
intermediate exams but passed the final examinations honestly, having crammed
the entire three-year course in six weeks.[2]
St Cyprian's Lodge, Eastbourne
During World War II, Maxwell served as an instructor with the Special
Operations Executive. After the war, he purchased the Isle of Soay off Skye in
the Inner Hebrides, Scotland. According to his book Harpoon at a Venture
(1952), bad planning and a lack of finance meant his attempt to establish a
basking shark fishery there between 1945-48 proved unsuccessful and the island
was sold on to his business partner, Tex Geddes. He became a close friend of
Elias Canetti.
In 1956, Maxwell toured the reed marshes of Southern Iraq with explorer
Wilfred Thesiger.
Maxwell's account of their trip appears in A Reed Shaken By The Wind,
later published under the title People of the Reeds. It was hailed by
The New York Times as "near perfect".[4]
Maxwell next moved to Sandaig[5]
(which he called Camusfeàrna in his books), a small community opposite
Eilean Iarmain on a remote part of the Scottish mainland. This is where his
"otter books" are set. After Ring of Bright Water (1960), he wrote
The Rocks Remain (1963), in which the otters Edal, Teko, Mossy and Monday
show great differences in personality. The Rocks Remain is a sequel to
Ring of Bright Water, and demonstrates the difficulty Maxwell was
having, possibly as a result of his mental state, in remaining focused on one
project and the impact that had on his otters, Sandaig and his own life.
In 1966, he travelled to Morocco, tracing the dramatic lives of the last
rulers of Morrakesh under the French. His account of the trip was published as
Lords of the Atlas: The Rise and Fall of the House of Glaoua 1893-1956.
During the Moroccan Years of Lead, the regime there considered his book
subversive and banned its importation.
In The House of Elrig (1965), Maxwell describes his family history
and his passion for the calf-country, Galloway, where he was born. It was
during this period that he met ornithologist Peter Scott and the young Terry
Nutkins, who later became a children's television presenter. Privately
homosexual,[6]
Maxwell married Lavinia Renton (daughter of The Right Honourable Sir Alan
Lascelles and granddaughter of Viscount Chelmsford, Wilfred Thesiger's uncle)
on 1 February 1962. The marriage lasted little more than a year and they
divorced in 1964.[7]
Maxwell also lived in Paultons Square in London.
In 1968, Maxwell's Sandaig home was destroyed by fire and he moved to the
lighthouse keepers' cottages on Eilean Bàn (White Island), an island between
the Isle of Skye and the Scottish mainland by Kyleakin. He invited John
Lister-Kaye to join him on Eilean Bàn and help him build a zoo on the island
and work on a book about British wild mammals. Lister-Kaye accepted the
invitation, but both projects were abandoned when Maxwell died from cancer the
following year.[8]
Eilean Bàn now supports a pier of the Skye Bridge, built during the 1990s.
Despite modern traffic a hundred feet or so above it, the island is a
commemorative otter sanctuary and houses a museum dedicated to Maxwell.
Another memorial is a bronze otter erected at Monreith near to St Medan's Golf
Club.
According to Douglas Botting, Maxwell suffered from bipolar disorder
throughout his life.[9]
Maxwell's literary agent was Peter Janson-Smith,[10]
who was also agent for James Bond author Ian Fleming.
My published books:
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- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gavin_Maxwell