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Gavin Maxwell: A Life
The life of the man who wrote Ring of Bright Water. This is the first full length biography of Gavin Maxwell - a tour de force, as evocative of the places and creatures in Maxwell's life as of the man himself.
Never had the simple life been pursued by so complicated a character. Grandson of the Duke of Northumberland, Maxwell never knew his father, (killed in battle in 1914) the year of his birth.His childhood spent at the isolated Scottish ancestral home of Elrig and his wartime training SOE agents in survival techniques he later took up shark hunting on the Hebridean isle of Soay - the subject of his first book, Harpoon at a Venture. It was the explorer Wildfred Thesiger who introduced Maxwell to otters in the Tigris Marshes of Iraq. Ring of Bright Water, his classic account of life with otters brought him worldwide fame as an outstanding writer and a latter day eccentric int he grand manner.
The book is illustrated with maps and photographs.
Never had the simple life been pursued by so complicated a character. Grandson of the Duke of Northumberland, Maxwell never knew his father, (killed in battle in 1914) the year of his birth.His childhood spent at the isolated Scottish ancestral home of Elrig and his wartime training SOE agents in survival techniques he later took up shark hunting on the Hebridean isle of Soay - the subject of his first book, Harpoon at a Venture. It was the explorer Wildfred Thesiger who introduced Maxwell to otters in the Tigris Marshes of Iraq. Ring of Bright Water, his classic account of life with otters brought him worldwide fame as an outstanding writer and a latter day eccentric int he grand manner.
The book is illustrated with maps and photographs.
- GenresBiographyNonfiction
585 pages, Paperback
First published September 23, 1993
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April 20, 2018
Gavin Maxwell was born on the 15th July 1914 the youngest son of Lieutenant-Colonel Aymer Maxwell and Lady Mary Percy, fifth daughter of the seventh Duke of Northumberland. As the fourth child he had a sheltered upbringing in the small village of Elrig, in Wigtownshire. He was late being sent off to boarding school and struggled to mix with other children, preferring animals which he always had a natural affinity with. He attended Oxford, leaving with a 3rd class degree shortly before World War II. He managed to get a commission with the Scots Guards, the regiment that his family were associated with and moved down to Pirbright for training. His fitness was suspect though and he was moved sideways into the newly created SOE. He was an ideal instructor after the years spent roaming the wilds of Scotland and his keen eye as a shooter meant he was a crack shot. In the end his fitness meant that he couldn't stay and left the army.
After the war, he borrowed £11,000 from his mother, technically an early inheritance, and bought himself an island. He set up a business to catch and process basking sharks, but it failed and he ended up selling it. He dabbled in car racing, having always had a love of speed, but wasn't hugely successful at that either. He tried various activities to occupy him, including painting, something he loved but wasn't particularly proficient at, but it did lead him to find a place that was to be a part of his life for a long while to come; Sandaig. This idyllic house was located on the coast with pure white sand, springy green turf and with the nearest neighbour two miles away it was to become his refuge, his Avalon. Whilst he was there he put down his brush, picked up his pen, and wrote the story of his attempt at shark fishing, Harpoon at a Venture.
This book was critically acclaimed and was to be the first of many books that he would write. The desire to travel would take him to Iraq with Wilfred Thesiger and Gavin Young and more books would be forthcoming, including the renowned A Reed Shaken By The Wind of his travels around the marshes of southern Iraq with the Arabs that called it their home. It was here he was to encounter the animal that would define the next stage of his life, the otter. He managed to acquire a small cub called Chahala, but it died shortly after receiving it. He asked if another could be found and soon after an another otter was brought to him; this he called Mijbil. This was the otter that he returned to Sandaig with. This animal was to bring him immense joy and a certain amount of chaos and distracted him in his writing. Mijbil was tragically killed, supposedly in an accident, but many knew it was a deliberate act of cruelty.
More otters were sought and it was these that were to inspire his to write his masterpiece Ring of Bright Water, a title taken from a poem by Kathleen Raine called "The Marriage of Psyche". The book about the wilds of Scotland and the otters became an instant bestseller and made Maxwell famous overnight. The income from the book meant that he could clear of some of the debts that he had got from his extravagant spending and it meant that he could fund a series of travels to Morocco for material for the next book he was planning.
Maxwell suffered from bipolar disorder who had massive highs and lows, he was a closet homosexual, something that was illegal at the time and it made him an immensely complex character. He had turbulent relationships with the few women in his life and was even married briefly to Lavinia Renton for a short period. The most intense relationship was with Kathleen Raine who cursed him and the house after a particularly stormy row. He had come from a wealthy family and he could spend money like water, buying cars and properties with no consideration as to the way of securing an income from them. Even though he was a writer of rare talent, he was considered to be very difficult to deal with, asking for large advances, early payments against royalties and frequently very late for submissions. He drank heavily and smoked a great deal, probably a contributory factor to the cancer that he succumbed to at the end of his life.
Botting's superb republished biography of Maxwell is timely given the rise of interest in nature and landscape writing. He was a friend of Maxwell, and this shows in the book as he has been able to write about details that someone who never knew him would not have been able to discover. Maxwell lived life to the full and Botting is honest with his profile of him too writing about the good and the bad, the successes and the failures with a critical but not unkind eye. This superb biography reminded me of the one by Artemis Cooper of Patrick Leigh Fermor, another writer who redefined a genre. This book has been given the Eland treatment with their distinctive branding and is a worthy addition to their collection of classic books.
After the war, he borrowed £11,000 from his mother, technically an early inheritance, and bought himself an island. He set up a business to catch and process basking sharks, but it failed and he ended up selling it. He dabbled in car racing, having always had a love of speed, but wasn't hugely successful at that either. He tried various activities to occupy him, including painting, something he loved but wasn't particularly proficient at, but it did lead him to find a place that was to be a part of his life for a long while to come; Sandaig. This idyllic house was located on the coast with pure white sand, springy green turf and with the nearest neighbour two miles away it was to become his refuge, his Avalon. Whilst he was there he put down his brush, picked up his pen, and wrote the story of his attempt at shark fishing, Harpoon at a Venture.
This book was critically acclaimed and was to be the first of many books that he would write. The desire to travel would take him to Iraq with Wilfred Thesiger and Gavin Young and more books would be forthcoming, including the renowned A Reed Shaken By The Wind of his travels around the marshes of southern Iraq with the Arabs that called it their home. It was here he was to encounter the animal that would define the next stage of his life, the otter. He managed to acquire a small cub called Chahala, but it died shortly after receiving it. He asked if another could be found and soon after an another otter was brought to him; this he called Mijbil. This was the otter that he returned to Sandaig with. This animal was to bring him immense joy and a certain amount of chaos and distracted him in his writing. Mijbil was tragically killed, supposedly in an accident, but many knew it was a deliberate act of cruelty.
More otters were sought and it was these that were to inspire his to write his masterpiece Ring of Bright Water, a title taken from a poem by Kathleen Raine called "The Marriage of Psyche". The book about the wilds of Scotland and the otters became an instant bestseller and made Maxwell famous overnight. The income from the book meant that he could clear of some of the debts that he had got from his extravagant spending and it meant that he could fund a series of travels to Morocco for material for the next book he was planning.
Maxwell suffered from bipolar disorder who had massive highs and lows, he was a closet homosexual, something that was illegal at the time and it made him an immensely complex character. He had turbulent relationships with the few women in his life and was even married briefly to Lavinia Renton for a short period. The most intense relationship was with Kathleen Raine who cursed him and the house after a particularly stormy row. He had come from a wealthy family and he could spend money like water, buying cars and properties with no consideration as to the way of securing an income from them. Even though he was a writer of rare talent, he was considered to be very difficult to deal with, asking for large advances, early payments against royalties and frequently very late for submissions. He drank heavily and smoked a great deal, probably a contributory factor to the cancer that he succumbed to at the end of his life.
Botting's superb republished biography of Maxwell is timely given the rise of interest in nature and landscape writing. He was a friend of Maxwell, and this shows in the book as he has been able to write about details that someone who never knew him would not have been able to discover. Maxwell lived life to the full and Botting is honest with his profile of him too writing about the good and the bad, the successes and the failures with a critical but not unkind eye. This superb biography reminded me of the one by Artemis Cooper of Patrick Leigh Fermor, another writer who redefined a genre. This book has been given the Eland treatment with their distinctive branding and is a worthy addition to their collection of classic books.
August 24, 2010
Douglas Botting is an excellent biographer, helped by the fact that he was a close friend of Maxwells'. His early life growing up in the Scottish highlands and his WW2 SAS service & later shark hunting ventures prove him to be a talented and formidable force. A shame Maxwell's estate put a block on some parts of Maxwell's life. eg. his homosexuality and bipolar disorder were only marginally mentioned; which gives a rather lopsided view of his relationships, namely those of Kathleen Rain and his wife Lavinia figure more predominately and of his relationships with animals and conservation. The omission of details of his homosexuality and biopolar condition make it hard to understand the man in some ways, but in other ways only add to the sense than Gavin Maxwell did not fit into the world and was essentially an outsider. Maxwell by all accounts was a remarkable man & writer though sadly feted with disaster after disaster (some of his own making). His adventures in the middle east and Morocco are well covered and also his lifelong love of nature & efforts to create a conservation zoo on one of the Scottish isles that he purchased. It was because of Maxwell's efforts that throughout the world otters have been since studied & protected in the wild. His book 'Ring of Bright Water'/& sequel and subsequent film stirred the general public to look at the countryside around them and create a greater interest in ecology. His poetry is quoted throughout and there are many obscure facts that delight. It was Maxwell who spurred the young Richard Branson (Virgin airlines etc) on to leave school and create his own business. Maxwell's fairly sudden death at age 55 of cancer is described and has the effect of making one think twice before downing another scotch and a cigarette.
This edition contains a great many photographs.
This edition contains a great many photographs.
July 14, 2022
The author of this biography was a great deal closer to his subject than is the case with most biographers. Sometimes this can be a disadvantage, but here I feel it is very much a strength. Botting, despite being Maxwell’s close friend, is not afraid to record the man’s many flaws. Maxwell was, in many ways, a deeply unpleasant human being. It is to Botting’s credit that we get a strong sense of this, and yet never entirely lose our sense of fascination and sympathy. And, of course, Botting shared in the atmosphere of the famous cottage at Sandaig where Maxwell’s best years were spent with his otters, so he can write:
“There were no guests, no road, no electricity, no phones or intrusions of any kind…life was bucolic, clockless, other worldly, detached in space and suspended in time…at night the light came from the yellow glow of candles and oil lamps which created a mysterious and enchanted atmosphere, like a peasant cave in the hills, or a log cabin buried deep in the wilderness.”
This to me is close to perfection (and not too dissimilar to my current abode), and I feel Botting catches the atmosphere just right.
As for the otters, of course they are fascinating. The story of the finding of Edal is so wildly improbable that it calls into question the whole notion of coincidence. But for me it is the humans in the story who are the most interesting. Nobody now would let their teenage sons live with a man of Maxwell’s obvious proclivities, and yet he had a remarkable success in earning the loyalty and affection of a number of them – especially Jimmy Watt, who eventually became his heir. It is difficult, however, to disentangle the exact nature of their relationship. Watt seems to have been heterosexual and, as Maxwell’s literary executor, insisted that Botting avoided any but the vaguest hints about Maxwell’s sex life. Certainly, Maxwell’s brief and disastrous marriage is given prominence, and his relationships – there were some – with other women. But on the subject of the youths who were clearly his main love interest – and not least, one suspects, Watt himself – there is a deep reticence. (Judging from the text alone, you would never guess what is revealed by the one photo of Watt in the book: that he was heart-stoppingly beautiful). This is a pity, as it ultimately blocks us from understanding something that seems to me essential in Maxwell’s strange makeup. But maybe there will always be something mysterious and unknowable about the tortured genius that he was (Botting was convinced he had bipolar disorder – though this is as glossed over as his homosexuality).
The most interesting woman in Maxwell’s life was not his unfortunate wife but the poet Kathleen Raine – “Ring of Bright Water” is the title of one of her poems – who had the misfortune to be in love with Maxwell for many years in ways which were terribly destructive for both of them (but especially for her). And yet…when he lay dying, she wrote poetry in which he saw himself, as in a mirror, and she wrote –
“What was suffering to him has given happiness to others, and what was suffering for me has raised the human spirit for others. It’s such a mystery.”
Amen to that.
“There were no guests, no road, no electricity, no phones or intrusions of any kind…life was bucolic, clockless, other worldly, detached in space and suspended in time…at night the light came from the yellow glow of candles and oil lamps which created a mysterious and enchanted atmosphere, like a peasant cave in the hills, or a log cabin buried deep in the wilderness.”
This to me is close to perfection (and not too dissimilar to my current abode), and I feel Botting catches the atmosphere just right.
As for the otters, of course they are fascinating. The story of the finding of Edal is so wildly improbable that it calls into question the whole notion of coincidence. But for me it is the humans in the story who are the most interesting. Nobody now would let their teenage sons live with a man of Maxwell’s obvious proclivities, and yet he had a remarkable success in earning the loyalty and affection of a number of them – especially Jimmy Watt, who eventually became his heir. It is difficult, however, to disentangle the exact nature of their relationship. Watt seems to have been heterosexual and, as Maxwell’s literary executor, insisted that Botting avoided any but the vaguest hints about Maxwell’s sex life. Certainly, Maxwell’s brief and disastrous marriage is given prominence, and his relationships – there were some – with other women. But on the subject of the youths who were clearly his main love interest – and not least, one suspects, Watt himself – there is a deep reticence. (Judging from the text alone, you would never guess what is revealed by the one photo of Watt in the book: that he was heart-stoppingly beautiful). This is a pity, as it ultimately blocks us from understanding something that seems to me essential in Maxwell’s strange makeup. But maybe there will always be something mysterious and unknowable about the tortured genius that he was (Botting was convinced he had bipolar disorder – though this is as glossed over as his homosexuality).
The most interesting woman in Maxwell’s life was not his unfortunate wife but the poet Kathleen Raine – “Ring of Bright Water” is the title of one of her poems – who had the misfortune to be in love with Maxwell for many years in ways which were terribly destructive for both of them (but especially for her). And yet…when he lay dying, she wrote poetry in which he saw himself, as in a mirror, and she wrote –
“What was suffering to him has given happiness to others, and what was suffering for me has raised the human spirit for others. It’s such a mystery.”
Amen to that.
October 30, 2020
Douglas Botting did it again. I thoroughly enjoyed his Gerald Durrell biography, but this one, written by someone twenty years younger than Gavin Maxwell who knew him well (though not as a lover), is an unsparing masterpiece. There were many comic and tragicomic moments, but my heart was in my mouth towards the end wondering how Gavin would die, as I knew the date but didn't know *how.* Coming from someone who has never read Ring of Bright Water or any of Gavin Maxwell's books, this literary biography of a complex and sometimes maddening man kept me completely enraptured. Was sorry to see that Botting is no longer with us either.
Writing a fair and compassionate biography of someone who so clearly had a personality disorder—either bipolar or BPD—is so very hard to do, but Botting manages it. Likewise, Maxwell's bisexuality or pansexuality, as we might call it now, is carefully charted. While GM can be seen as essentially homosexual, and a straight man might certainly view him that way, I don't think he would have accepted the label himself. Overall, I was moved by his strange and intense love-hate relationship with poet Kathleen Raine, who understood him so well. Gavin Maxwell seems like an Iris Murdoch character at times—they were peers and may have met, since they both confided in Elias Canetti and knocked about in London at around the same time. He packed a lot into a rather short and thwarted life (1914-1969), beset by financial and emotional disasters, but was bravely able to set his life in order at the very end.
Writing a fair and compassionate biography of someone who so clearly had a personality disorder—either bipolar or BPD—is so very hard to do, but Botting manages it. Likewise, Maxwell's bisexuality or pansexuality, as we might call it now, is carefully charted. While GM can be seen as essentially homosexual, and a straight man might certainly view him that way, I don't think he would have accepted the label himself. Overall, I was moved by his strange and intense love-hate relationship with poet Kathleen Raine, who understood him so well. Gavin Maxwell seems like an Iris Murdoch character at times—they were peers and may have met, since they both confided in Elias Canetti and knocked about in London at around the same time. He packed a lot into a rather short and thwarted life (1914-1969), beset by financial and emotional disasters, but was bravely able to set his life in order at the very end.
October 25, 2022
Gavin Maxwell (1914-1969) hat vieles in seinem Leben gemacht: nach seiner Zeit bei der Armee kaufte er ein Boot und versuchte sich an der Jagd auf Haie, er schrieb Bücher übers Reisen und war Maler. Die größte Bekanntheit erreichte er aber wahrscheinlich durch die Trilogie "A ring of bright water", in der er über das Leben mit seinen Ottern an der Westküste Schottlands erzählte. In seinem Buch erzählt sein Freund und Begleiter Douglas Botting über das Leben dieses vielseitigen Mannes.
Schon die erste Begegnung der Beiden ist kurios: Gavin Maxwell lässt seinen Besucher vor der Tür stehen, weil der zu früh ist. So steht Douglas Botting auf einer Straße in London vor einem Haus und wird von exotischen Tieren durch die Fenster beobachtet. Das Innere und sein menschlicher Bewohner sind nicht weniger exotisch. Aus der anfänglichen Faszination wird eine Freundschaft, die bis zum Tod Maxwells anhält.
Wie wird aus jemand, der Haie jagte der Mann, der sich in eine abgelegene Hütte zurückzieht um sich nur noch um seine Tiere zu kümmern? Für viele Menschen passt das nicht zusammen. Für Gavin Maxwell dagegen schon. Die Jagd ist etwas, um seinen Lebensunterhalt zu verdienen. Wobei er gerade diesen Teil seines Lebens auch aus einer Laune heraus geplant hat, wie er in "Harpoon at a venture" erzählt. Die Entscheidung, sich von der Gesellschaft zurückzuziehen war dagegen eher eine Flucht. Gavin Maxwell war immer auf der Suche nach dem Paradies, in dem er ohne Verpflichtungen leben konnte.
Auch für mich haben die unterschiedlichen Karrieren Maxwells nicht zusammengepasst. Gavin Maxwell hat sich mit seinen Ottern bestimmt den Traum nach einem Gefährten erfüllt. Gleichzeitig waren die Tiere für ihn aber auch austauschbar und wurden direkt ersetzt, wenn eines der Tiere starb oder sich nicht nach den Vorstellungen seines Besitzers verhielt. Außerdem verließ Maxwell sein kleines Reich oft für mehrere Monate um zu reisen oder in London zu leben. Diese Reisen waren notwendig, weil auch ein Paradies nicht ohne Geld aufrecht erhalten werden kann. Trotzdem hat Gavin sein jeweiliges Zuhause immer verlassen, ohne sich wirklich darüber Gedanken zu machen, was in der Zwischenzeit damit passiert.
Aber Gavin Maxwell war nicht nur der verschrobene Kerl, der irgendwo in Schottland mit Ottern lebte. Er war auch der Mann, der mit dem Duke von Edinburgh jagen ging und mit Prinzessin Margaret am Tisch saß. Sein Leben hatte viele Facetten, vielleicht zu viele um damit zurecht zu kommen.
Douglas Botting und Gavin Maxwell waren befreundet. Trotzdem schreibt Botting oft kritisch über seinen Freund. Das gefällt mir, denn ich mag Biografien die auch über die weniger schönen Eigenschaften der Person berichten, über deren Leben sie erzählen. Aber ich habe trotzdem das Gefühl, dass Douglas Botting einiges zurückgehalten hat, vielleicht um seinen Freund doch nicht zu schlecht dastehen zu lassen.
Schon die erste Begegnung der Beiden ist kurios: Gavin Maxwell lässt seinen Besucher vor der Tür stehen, weil der zu früh ist. So steht Douglas Botting auf einer Straße in London vor einem Haus und wird von exotischen Tieren durch die Fenster beobachtet. Das Innere und sein menschlicher Bewohner sind nicht weniger exotisch. Aus der anfänglichen Faszination wird eine Freundschaft, die bis zum Tod Maxwells anhält.
Wie wird aus jemand, der Haie jagte der Mann, der sich in eine abgelegene Hütte zurückzieht um sich nur noch um seine Tiere zu kümmern? Für viele Menschen passt das nicht zusammen. Für Gavin Maxwell dagegen schon. Die Jagd ist etwas, um seinen Lebensunterhalt zu verdienen. Wobei er gerade diesen Teil seines Lebens auch aus einer Laune heraus geplant hat, wie er in "Harpoon at a venture" erzählt. Die Entscheidung, sich von der Gesellschaft zurückzuziehen war dagegen eher eine Flucht. Gavin Maxwell war immer auf der Suche nach dem Paradies, in dem er ohne Verpflichtungen leben konnte.
Auch für mich haben die unterschiedlichen Karrieren Maxwells nicht zusammengepasst. Gavin Maxwell hat sich mit seinen Ottern bestimmt den Traum nach einem Gefährten erfüllt. Gleichzeitig waren die Tiere für ihn aber auch austauschbar und wurden direkt ersetzt, wenn eines der Tiere starb oder sich nicht nach den Vorstellungen seines Besitzers verhielt. Außerdem verließ Maxwell sein kleines Reich oft für mehrere Monate um zu reisen oder in London zu leben. Diese Reisen waren notwendig, weil auch ein Paradies nicht ohne Geld aufrecht erhalten werden kann. Trotzdem hat Gavin sein jeweiliges Zuhause immer verlassen, ohne sich wirklich darüber Gedanken zu machen, was in der Zwischenzeit damit passiert.
Aber Gavin Maxwell war nicht nur der verschrobene Kerl, der irgendwo in Schottland mit Ottern lebte. Er war auch der Mann, der mit dem Duke von Edinburgh jagen ging und mit Prinzessin Margaret am Tisch saß. Sein Leben hatte viele Facetten, vielleicht zu viele um damit zurecht zu kommen.
Douglas Botting und Gavin Maxwell waren befreundet. Trotzdem schreibt Botting oft kritisch über seinen Freund. Das gefällt mir, denn ich mag Biografien die auch über die weniger schönen Eigenschaften der Person berichten, über deren Leben sie erzählen. Aber ich habe trotzdem das Gefühl, dass Douglas Botting einiges zurückgehalten hat, vielleicht um seinen Freund doch nicht zu schlecht dastehen zu lassen.
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February 2, 2021One of the few biographical authors who could accurately research and write from personal experience, about this deeply private and complicated man.
Moving back to his beloved Scottish West Highlands, after the failure of the shark fishing venture on the Isle of Soay in 1948. Maxwell eventually took up residence in a lighthouse keepers cottage, a stone's throw from a white sandy beach on the beautiful Sound of Sleat, with its own archipelago of islands with dazzling white sandy coral beaches. Here he found his Avalon, wherein 1960 he was to publish the book which would make him and his otters more famous than he could ever have imagined.
Camusfeàrna, (Bay of Alders) the name Maxwell gave to his Avalon would never be the same again.
Moving back to his beloved Scottish West Highlands, after the failure of the shark fishing venture on the Isle of Soay in 1948. Maxwell eventually took up residence in a lighthouse keepers cottage, a stone's throw from a white sandy beach on the beautiful Sound of Sleat, with its own archipelago of islands with dazzling white sandy coral beaches. Here he found his Avalon, wherein 1960 he was to publish the book which would make him and his otters more famous than he could ever have imagined.
Camusfeàrna, (Bay of Alders) the name Maxwell gave to his Avalon would never be the same again.
January 6, 2021
The best biography I have ever read. Brilliant.
July 20, 2015
Superb and moving insight into Gavin Maxwell.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews