Gavin Maxwell: A Life

(Paperback)

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Description

Gavin Maxwell was a romantic, self-destructive, aristocratic adventurer who worked as secret agent, shark fisherman, racing driver, poet and travel writer. His fame rested on the bestselling story of the otters he brought back from Iraq and raised and lived with on the west coast of Scotland, Ring of Bright Water. Maxwell's private life was turbulent. His essential homosexuality was masked by the love of a number of women, for whom he was a serially unsatisfactory partner. Never was the simple life pursued by so complicated a character.

'...totally absorbing, wonderfully written and very penetrating ... What an extraordinary story!' - David Attenborough

Reviews

'Totally absorbing, wonderfully written. David Attenborough; 'Here is a life woven from the stuff of high romance, a tragic and fascinating quest. Elspeth Barker, Independent; 'Could hardly be bettered Botting s great achievement is to have looked his friend square in the face, portraying his frailties while remaining loyal to his gifts. Fraser Harrison, New Statesman

Author Bio

Douglas Botting was a trusted friend of Gavin Maxwell in the last 12 years of his life and a fellow explorer-traveller-writer, so was uniquely equipped to understand both the creative and destructive demons that drove him. He has created an empathetic study of a man, which reads like the most bizarre and eccentric adventure story, for that is what it is.