Gavin Maxwell: A Life - Hardcover

Botting, Douglas

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0246130466 ISBN 13: 9780246130464

Publisher: HarperCollins, 1993

Synopsis

The life of Gavin Maxwell - author of "Ring of Bright Water" - combines high adventure, encounters with wildlife, passionately descriptive writing and a deeply troubled personality. Homosexual, but briefly married and a longstanding friend of the poet Kathleen Raine, eccentric and solitary, he found the call of the wild irresistable. It was Wilfrid Thesiger who gave Maxwell the otter Mij which set him on his new life's course, and it was the otters at Camusfearna which were to make Maxwell's name famous.

About this title

Review

'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

From the Back Cover

'The life of the man who wrote 'Ring of Bright Water ''

The bestselling author of 'Ring of Bright Water' – his classic account of life with otters at his inaccessible Highlands wilderness by the sea – was, in the words of 'The Times', ' a man of action who writes like a poet'. Aristocrat, social renegade, wartime secret agent, shark-hunter, adventurer, racing driver, traveller, naturalist, poet and painter, Gavin Maxwell was also one of the most popular authors of wildlife books in the twentieth century.

Wonderfully written and very penetrating and understanding. What an extraordinary story!"
DAVID ATTENBOROUGH

"Here is a life woven from the stuff of high romance, a tragic and fascinating quest."
ELSPETH BARKER, 'Independent on Sunday' Books of the Year

"Compelling... a ripping yarn about a mercurial man told with the verve and romanticism it deserves."
JOHN MCEWEN, 'Sunday Telegraph'

"Could hardly be bettered... Botting's great achievement is to have looked his friend squarely in the face, portraying his frailties while remaining loyal to his gifts."
FRASER HARRISON, 'New Statesman'

"Botting's achievement is immense... much as Maxwell would have raged at his biographer's portrayal of his many flaws as well as his virtues, he would have approved of the book's honesty... Botting has unravelled then rewoven the extraordinary tapestry of Maxwell's life into a fond, frank and endlessly absorbing and moving book."
JIM CRUMLEY, 'Scotland on Sunday'

"Masterly... enthralling”
ANDRO LINKLATER, ' Spectator'

"Fascinating... a tour de force, meticulously researched and well written, for Botting's descriptive prose is in the same genre as Maxwell's and equally eloquent. This is a book that is difficult to put down."
PHILIP WAYRE, ' The Field'

"Excellent and thorough... a gripping story, told here by someone who knew him very well, yet can stand back far enough to see this extraordinary character as a whole."
DUFF HART-DAVIS, 'Mail on Sunday'

About this edition

• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Publication date: 1993
• ISBN 10: 0246130466
• ISBN 13: 9780246130464
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 620