Gavin Maxwell: A Life

by Douglas Botting

Overview

Gavin Maxwell was a romantic, self-destructive, aristocratic adventurer who worked as secret agent, shark fisherman, racing driver, poet and travel writer. His books on Iraq, Sicily and Morocco were acclaimed, but his fame as a writer rested on his bestselling story of the otters he raised and lived with in a remote cottage on the west coast of Scotland, Ring of Bright Water. Maxwell's private life was every bit as turbulent. His essential homosexuality was masked by the love of a number of women, for whom he was a serially unsatisfactory partner. This authorized biography is a magnificent evocation of the man, his time and the animals and places that formed such an important part of it. Never was the simple life of a nature-loving conservationist pursued by so complicated a character.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781780600970
Publisher:	Eland Publishing
Publication date:	05/04/2017
Sold by:	Bookwire
Format:	eBook
Pages:	626
File size:	8 MB

About the Author

Douglas Botting is a writer whose previous books reflect his interest in travel, exploration and wild places. He has accompanied expeditions and was an exploration film-maker for the BBC. He because a full-time writer with the publication of his highly praised biography of the German explorer-naturalist Alexander von Humboldt. He first met Gavin Maxwell after the tragic death of Maxwell's first otter, Mij. He was at Sandaig during the writing of Ring of Bright Water and spent a winter there with Maxwell's otters during their owner's absence abroad.