Gavin Maxwell
Encyclopedia
Gavin Maxwell FRSL, FIAL, FZS (Sc.), FRGS (15 July 1914 – 7 September 1969) was a Scottish
naturalist
and author
, best known for his work with otter
s. He wrote the book Ring of Bright Water
(1960) about how he brought an otter back from Iraq
and raised it in Scotland. Ring of Bright Water sold more than a million copies and was made into a movie starring Bill Travers
and Virginia McKenna
in 1969. The title 'Ring of Bright Water' was taken from a poem by Kathleen Raine
(1908–2003) who said in her autobiography that Maxwell had been the love of her life.
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
.
He was raised in the tiny village of Elrig
, near Port William, in Wigtownshire
, near the south west corner of Scotland, and Maxwell's relatives still reside in the Port William area; the family's ancient estate
and grounds are in nearby Monreith
. Maxwell is an extremely common name in the area.
His education took place at a succession of preparatory schools
, including St Cyprian's
where he found encouragement for his interest in natural history, Stowe
, and Hertford College, Oxford
, where he took a degree in Estate Management by reason of family pressures. In The Rocks Remain he relates how he had no interest in taking such a degree and spent the time in sporting and leisure activities instead of studying; he passed his intermediate exams by an elaborate process of cheating, but passed his finals honestly, having "crammed" the entire three-year course in six weeks.
In World War II
Maxwell served as an instructor with the Special Operations Executive
. After the war, he purchased the Isle of Soay off Skye. He tried to establish a basking shark
fishery there between 1945-48. He was unsuccessful, due to bad planning and lack of finance, according to his book Harpoon at a Venture (1952, since republished under various titles). After the war, 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".
Maxwell next moved to Sandaig (which he called Camusfeàrna in his books), a small community opposite Eilean Iarmain
on a remote part of the Scottish mainland. There 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, as it 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 traveled to Morocco
with a companion, tracing the dramatic lives of the last rulers of Morocco under the French, published as Lords of the Atlas: The Rise and Fall of the House of Glaoua 1893-1956. During the Years of Lead
, the Moroccan regime considered his book subversive and it could not be imported legally.
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 Peter Scott
, the ornithologist, and the young Terry Nutkins
who went on to become a children's television presenter. Privately homosexual, Maxwell married Lavinia Renton (née Lascelles) on 1 February 1962; however, the marriage lasted little more than a year and they were divorced in 1964.
Several young men derived much benefit from relationships with Maxwell.
After his Sandaig home was destroyed by fire in 1968, Maxwell moved to the lighthouse cottage of Eilean Bàn (White Island), an island he owned off the coast of the Isle of Skye.
In 1969, Maxwell invited John Lister-Kaye
to move to Eilean Bàn to help him work on a book about British wild mammals and to assist in building a zoo on the island. Lister-Kaye accepted the invitation and moved to the island, but both projects had to be abandoned when Maxwell died from cancer later that same year.
Eilean Bàn now supports a pier of the 1990s-built Skye Bridge, and, despite modern traffic a hundred feet or so above, the island is a commemorative otter sanctuary. Also on the island is a museum dedicated to Maxwell. A bronze otter was also erected in the grounds of Port William Golf Course as a memorial
to Maxwell.
Maxwell suffered from bipolar disorder
throughout his life, according to Douglas Botting. Maxwell's literary agent was Peter Janson-Smith, who was also agent for his contemporary, the author Ian Fleming
.
Unusual adventures with exotic animals, and frequent stories of disasters, provide the main appeal of Maxwell's books. Although he could have pursued a diplomatic career like many of his class, or a conventional laird
ship, he rejected both for a simpler lifestyle.
describes how, in 1956, he brought a Smooth-coated Otter
back from Iraq and raised it in 'Camusfearna' (Sandaig), on the west coast of Scotland
. He took the otter, called Mijbil, to the London Zoological Society, where it was decided that this was a previously unknown sub-species of Smooth-coated Otter
, which was named after him: Lutrogale perspicillata maxwelli, or 'Maxwell's Otter'. It is thought to have lived in the Tigris-Euphrates alluvial salt marsh of Iraq
, but it has been suggested that it may have become extinct as a result of the large scale drainage that has taken place since the 1960s.
In the book, The Marsh Arabs, Wilfred Thesiger
wrote:
The otter became woven into the fabric of Maxwell's life; Raine's relationship with Maxwell ended in 1956 when she lost Mijbil, indirectly causing the animal's death. Raine held herself responsible, not only for losing Mijbil but for a curse she had uttered shortly beforehand, frustrated by Maxwell's homosexuality: "Let Gavin suffer in this place as I am suffering now." Raine blamed herself thereafter for all Maxwell's misfortunes, beginning with Mijbil's death and ending with the cancer that took his life in 1969.
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
naturalist
Natural history
Natural history is the scientific research of plants or animals, leaning more towards observational rather than experimental methods of study, and encompasses more research published in magazines than in academic journals. Grouped among the natural sciences, natural history is the systematic study...
and author
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
, best known for his work with otter
European Otter
The European Otter , also known as the Eurasian otter, Eurasian river otter, common otter and Old World otter, is a European and Asian member of the Lutrinae or otter subfamily, and is typical of freshwater otters....
s. He wrote the book Ring of Bright Water
Ring of Bright Water
Ring of Bright Water is a British feature film starring Bill Travers and Virginia McKenna in a story about a Londoner and an otter living on the Scottish coast. The film was based upon a 1960 autobiographical book of the same name by Gavin Maxwell, featuring the stars of Born Free, another movie...
(1960) about how he brought an otter back from Iraq
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
and raised it in Scotland. Ring of Bright Water sold more than a million copies and was made into a movie starring Bill Travers
Bill Travers
William Lindon-Travers was an English actor, screenwriter, director and an animal rights activist, known professionally as Bill Travers.-Life and career:...
and Virginia McKenna
Virginia McKenna
Virginia A. McKenna OBE is a British stage and screen actress, author and wildlife campaigner.-Early career:McKenna trained as an actress at the Central School of Speech and Drama then worked on stage in London's West End theatres before making her motion picture debut in 1952...
in 1969. The title 'Ring of Bright Water' was taken from a poem by Kathleen Raine
Kathleen Raine
Kathleen Jessie Raine was a British poet, critic, and scholar writing in particular on William Blake, W. B. Yeats and Thomas Taylor. Known for her interest in various forms of spirituality, most prominently Platonism and Neoplatonism, she was a founder member of the Temenos Academy.-Life:Raine was...
(1908–2003) who said in her autobiography that Maxwell had been the love of her life.
Biography
Henry Percy, 7th Duke of Northumberland
Henry George Percy, 7th Duke of Northumberland KG, PC, FRS , styled Lord Lovaine between 1865 and 1867 and Earl Percy between 1867 and 1899, was a British Conservative politician...
. His paternal grandfather, Sir Herbert Maxwell, was an archaeologist
Archaeology
Archaeology, or archeology , is the study of human society, primarily through the recovery and analysis of the material culture and environmental data that they have left behind, which includes artifacts, architecture, biofacts and cultural landscapes...
, politician
Politics
Politics is a process by which groups of people make collective decisions. The term is generally applied to the art or science of running governmental or state affairs, including behavior within civil governments, but also applies to institutions, fields, and special interest groups such as the...
and natural historian
Natural history
Natural history is the scientific research of plants or animals, leaning more towards observational rather than experimental methods of study, and encompasses more research published in magazines than in academic journals. Grouped among the natural sciences, natural history is the systematic study...
.
He was raised in the tiny village of Elrig
Elrig
Elrig is a Clachan in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland. Located in the Machars peninsula, about 3 miles north of Port William.Elrig is the birthplace of author and naturalist Gavin Maxwell, who was born at the House of Elrig. His boyhood is recounted in The House of Elrig, published in 1965...
, near Port William, in Wigtownshire
Wigtownshire
Wigtownshire or the County of Wigtown is a registration county in the Southern Uplands of south west Scotland. Until 1975, the county was one of the administrative counties used for local government purposes, and is now administered as part of the council area of Dumfries and Galloway...
, near the south west corner of Scotland, and Maxwell's relatives still reside in the Port William area; the family's ancient estate
Estate (house)
An estate comprises the houses and outbuildings and supporting farmland and woods that surround the gardens and grounds of a very large property, such as a country house or mansion. It is the modern term for a manor, but lacks the latter's now abolished jurisdictional authority...
and grounds are in nearby Monreith
Monreith House
Monreith House is a category A listed Georgian mansion located east of the village of Port William in Mochrum parish, Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland. The classical-style house was designed by Alexander Stevens in 1791, for Sir William Maxwell, 4th Baronet. The new house replaced the now-ruined...
. Maxwell is an extremely common name in the area.
His education took place at a succession of preparatory schools
Preparatory school (UK)
In English language usage in the former British Empire, the present-day Commonwealth, a preparatory school is an independent school preparing children up to the age of eleven or thirteen for entry into fee-paying, secondary independent schools, some of which are known as public schools...
, including St Cyprian's
St Cyprian's School
St Cyprian's School was an English preparatory school for boys, which operated in the early 20th century in Eastbourne, East Sussex. Like other preparatory schools, its purpose was to train pupils to do well enough in the examinations to gain admission to leading public schools, and to provide an...
where he found encouragement for his interest in natural history, Stowe
Stowe School
Stowe School is an independent school in Stowe, Buckinghamshire. It was founded on 11 May 1923 by J. F. Roxburgh, initially with 99 male pupils. It is a member of the Rugby Group and Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference. The school is also a member of the G20 Schools Group...
, and Hertford College, Oxford
Hertford College, Oxford
Hertford College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. It is located in Catte Street, directly opposite the main entrance of the original Bodleian Library. As of 2006, the college had a financial endowment of £52m. There are 612 students , plus various visiting...
, where he took a degree in Estate Management by reason of family pressures. In The Rocks Remain he relates how he had no interest in taking such a degree and spent the time in sporting and leisure activities instead of studying; he passed his intermediate exams by an elaborate process of cheating, but passed his finals honestly, having "crammed" the entire three-year course in six weeks.
In World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
Maxwell served as an instructor with the Special Operations Executive
Special Operations Executive
The Special Operations Executive was a World War II organisation of the United Kingdom. It was officially formed by Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Minister of Economic Warfare Hugh Dalton on 22 July 1940, to conduct guerrilla warfare against the Axis powers and to instruct and aid local...
. After the war, he purchased the Isle of Soay off Skye. He tried to establish a basking shark
Basking shark
The basking shark is the second largest living fish, after the whale shark. It is a cosmopolitan migratory species, found in all the world's temperate oceans. It is a slow moving and generally harmless filter feeder and has anatomical adaptations to filter feeding, such as a greatly enlarged...
fishery there between 1945-48. He was unsuccessful, due to bad planning and lack of finance, according to his book Harpoon at a Venture (1952, since republished under various titles). After the war, he became a close friend of Elias Canetti
Elias Canetti
Elias Canetti was a Bulgarian-born modernist novelist, playwright, memoirist, and non-fiction writer. He wrote in German and won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1981, "for writings marked by a broad outlook, a wealth of ideas and artistic power".-Life:...
.
In 1956 Maxwell toured the reed marshes
Tigris-Euphrates river system
The Tigris–Euphrates river system is part of the palearctic Tigris-Euphrates alluvial salt marsh ecoregion, in the flooded grasslands and savannas biome, located in West Asia.-Geography:...
of Southern Iraq
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
with explorer Wilfred Thesiger
Wilfred Thesiger
Sir Wilfred Patrick Thesiger, CBE, DSO, FRAS, FRGS was a British explorer and travel writer born in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia.-Family:...
. 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".
Maxwell next moved to Sandaig (which he called Camusfeàrna in his books), a small community opposite Eilean Iarmain
Isleornsay
Isleornsay is a village lying off the main Armadale to Sleat road on the Isle of Skye in Scotland. It overlooks, but is not upon, the island of Ornsay. The island itself shelters one of the best natural harbours in southern Skye...
on a remote part of the Scottish mainland. There 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, as it 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 traveled to Morocco
Morocco
Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of more than 32 million and an area of 710,850 km², and also primarily administers the disputed region of the Western Sahara...
with a companion, tracing the dramatic lives of the last rulers of Morocco under the French, published as Lords of the Atlas: The Rise and Fall of the House of Glaoua 1893-1956. During the Years of Lead
Years of Lead (Morocco)
The Years of Lead is the term used especially by former opponents to the rule of King Hassan II of Morocco to describe a period of his rule marked by state violence against dissidents and democracy activists.-Timeframe:...
, the Moroccan regime considered his book subversive and it could not be imported legally.
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 Peter Scott
Peter Scott
Sir Peter Markham Scott, CH, CBE, DSC and Bar, MID, FRS, FZS, was a British ornithologist, conservationist, painter, naval officer and sportsman....
, the ornithologist, and the young Terry Nutkins
Terry Nutkins
Terence P. Nutkins is an English naturalist, television presenter and author. He is known for his television appearances, notably in the UK children's programmes Animal Magic, The Really Wild Show, Brilliant Creatures and Growing Up Wild.-Biography:Terry Nutkins was born in Marylebone, London, and...
who went on to become a children's television presenter. Privately homosexual, Maxwell married Lavinia Renton (née Lascelles) on 1 February 1962; however, the marriage lasted little more than a year and they were divorced in 1964.
Several young men derived much benefit from relationships with Maxwell.
After his Sandaig home was destroyed by fire in 1968, Maxwell moved to the lighthouse cottage of Eilean Bàn (White Island), an island he owned off the coast of the Isle of Skye.
In 1969, Maxwell invited John Lister-Kaye
John Lister-Kaye
Sir John Philip Lister Lister-Kaye, 8th Baronet OBE is an English naturalist, conservationist, author and owner and Director of Scotland's premier field studies centre, Aigas Field Centre, among other business interests...
to move to Eilean Bàn to help him work on a book about British wild mammals and to assist in building a zoo on the island. Lister-Kaye accepted the invitation and moved to the island, but both projects had to be abandoned when Maxwell died from cancer later that same year.
Eilean Bàn now supports a pier of the 1990s-built Skye Bridge, and, despite modern traffic a hundred feet or so above, the island is a commemorative otter sanctuary. Also on the island is a museum dedicated to Maxwell. A bronze otter was also erected in the grounds of Port William Golf Course as a memorial
Memorial
A memorial is an object which serves as a focus for memory of something, usually a person or an event. Popular forms of memorials include landmark objects or art objects such as sculptures, statues or fountains, and even entire parks....
to Maxwell.
Maxwell suffered from bipolar disorder
Bipolar disorder
Bipolar disorder or bipolar affective disorder, historically known as manic–depressive disorder, is a psychiatric diagnosis that describes a category of mood disorders defined by the presence of one or more episodes of abnormally elevated energy levels, cognition, and mood with or without one or...
throughout his life, according to Douglas Botting. Maxwell's literary agent was Peter Janson-Smith, who was also agent for his contemporary, the author Ian Fleming
Ian Fleming
Ian Lancaster Fleming was a British author, journalist and Naval Intelligence Officer.Fleming is best known for creating the fictional British spy James Bond and for a series of twelve novels and nine short stories about the character, one of the biggest-selling series of fictional books of...
.
Unusual adventures with exotic animals, and frequent stories of disasters, provide the main appeal of Maxwell's books. Although he could have pursued a diplomatic career like many of his class, or a conventional laird
Laird
A Laird is a member of the gentry and is a heritable title in Scotland. In the non-peerage table of precedence, a Laird ranks below a Baron and above an Esquire.-Etymology:...
ship, he rejected both for a simpler lifestyle.
Maxwell's Otter
Maxwell's book Ring of Bright WaterRing of Bright Water
Ring of Bright Water is a British feature film starring Bill Travers and Virginia McKenna in a story about a Londoner and an otter living on the Scottish coast. The film was based upon a 1960 autobiographical book of the same name by Gavin Maxwell, featuring the stars of Born Free, another movie...
describes how, in 1956, he brought a Smooth-coated Otter
Smooth-coated Otter
The Smooth-coated Otter is a species of otter, the only extant representative of the genus Lutrogale. The species is found from southern Pakistan and parts of the India east to Southeast Asia, and there is a disjunct population in Iraq...
back from Iraq and raised it in 'Camusfearna' (Sandaig), on the west coast of Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
. He took the otter, called Mijbil, to the London Zoological Society, where it was decided that this was a previously unknown sub-species of Smooth-coated Otter
Smooth-coated Otter
The Smooth-coated Otter is a species of otter, the only extant representative of the genus Lutrogale. The species is found from southern Pakistan and parts of the India east to Southeast Asia, and there is a disjunct population in Iraq...
, which was named after him: Lutrogale perspicillata maxwelli, or 'Maxwell's Otter'. It is thought to have lived in the Tigris-Euphrates alluvial salt marsh of Iraq
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
, but it has been suggested that it may have become extinct as a result of the large scale drainage that has taken place since the 1960s.
In the book, The Marsh Arabs, Wilfred Thesiger
Wilfred Thesiger
Sir Wilfred Patrick Thesiger, CBE, DSO, FRAS, FRGS was a British explorer and travel writer born in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia.-Family:...
wrote:
[I]n 1956, Gavin Maxwell, who wished to write a book about the Marshes, came with me to Iraq, and I took him round in my tarada for seven weeks. He had always wanted an otter as a pet, and at last I found him a baby European otter which unfortunately died after a week, towards the end of his visit. He was in Basra preparing to go home when I managed to obtain another, which I sent to him. This, very dark in colour and about six weeks old, proved to be a new species. Gavin took it to England, and the species was named after him.
The otter became woven into the fabric of Maxwell's life; Raine's relationship with Maxwell ended in 1956 when she lost Mijbil, indirectly causing the animal's death. Raine held herself responsible, not only for losing Mijbil but for a curse she had uttered shortly beforehand, frustrated by Maxwell's homosexuality: "Let Gavin suffer in this place as I am suffering now." Raine blamed herself thereafter for all Maxwell's misfortunes, beginning with Mijbil's death and ending with the cancer that took his life in 1969.
Biography
- The White Island by John Lister-KayeJohn Lister-KayeSir John Philip Lister Lister-Kaye, 8th Baronet OBE is an English naturalist, conservationist, author and owner and Director of Scotland's premier field studies centre, Aigas Field Centre, among other business interests...
(about the author's time working with Maxwell) Longman (1972) ISBN 0-582-10903-5. - Maxwell's Ghost - An Epilogue to Gavin Maxwell's Camusfearna by Richard Frere, Victor GollanczVictor GollanczSir Victor Gollancz was a British publisher, socialist, and humanitarian.-Early life:Born in Maida Vale, London, he was the son of a wholesale jeweller and nephew of Rabbi Professor Sir Hermann Gollancz and Professor Sir Israel Gollancz; after being educated at St Paul's School, London and taking...
, (1976) ISBN 0-575-02044-X- Paperback reissue 1999, ISBN 1-84158-003-1
- Gavin Maxwell, A Life by Douglas BottingDouglas BottingDouglas Botting is an English explorer, author, biographer and TV presenter and producer. He wrote biographies of naturalists Gavin Maxwell and Gerald Durrell . He was the inspiration behind and writer of the BBC comedy show The Black Safari, a role reversal comedy show with Africans touring England...
, HarperCollins (1993) ISBN 0-246-13046-6 (authorized biography)- Republished as The Saga of Ring of Bright Water - The Enigma of Gavin Maxwell Neil Wilson Publishing Ltd, (2000) ISBN 1-897784-85-6