UKC

Currently reading this.

Maxwell is of course best known for his book 'Ring of Bright Water'. But immediately after WW2 he tried to set up a commercial basking shark fishery on the small island of Soay (off the south coast of Skye, between Loch Scavaig and Loch Brittle) - his efforts and eventual failure are described in the book. The subject matter is gruesome and shocking at times but some of the writing is beautiful and I'd certainly recommend it to anyone with an interest in the natural and human history of the Hebrides.

Some fascinating characters in the book, too - particularly a bloke by the name of Tex Geddes. What a life:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/obituary-tex-geddes-1157542.ht...

Interesting too to read of the early days of Mallaig - the early herring fisheries established there evidently had a real 'Klondyke' atmosphere. Fortunes won and lost. Prior to the arrival of the railroad at Mallaig, the main port in the area was apparently Tarbert, halfway up Loch Nevis. Virtually nothing remains of it now.

In reply to Douglas Griffin:

read his books as a kid and visited some of the places he did. his stuff in iraq and morocco really turned on a light in my brain. dropped by some places he lived in westerross too.

anecdotally, one of my grandfathers uncles was a ghillie to the maxwells in elgin where he grew up. even a picture of him in maxwells memoirs as apparently he instilled a sense for the trials of nature in him.

In reply to ice.solo:

Aye, he travelled with Wilf Thesiger in Iraq.

I'd recommend the biography by Douglas Botting ('Gavin Maxwell - A Life') - generally very sympathetic but shows what a complex character Maxwell was.

I bought a old copy of 'Harpoon at a Venture' this summer in the community shop on Canna. Was fascinating to sail around the same waters whilst reading about a very different era with very different attitudes.

In reply to Douglas Griffin:

yeah, he got a weird response when mentioned around kyle. complex for sure.
isolated with thesiger in the marshes of iraq would no doubt leave an impression.

In reply to ice.solo:

It's a while since I read the Botting book, but I seem to recall Maxwell (who was no stranger to roughing it) being a bit in awe of Thesiger's toughness!

In reply to Douglas Griffin:

yes. seems too there were more subtle personal matters that went on to affect them both in different ways.

In reply to Douglas Griffin:

One of my favourite books, but a very odd title which I've always wondered about.

A Reed Shaken by the Wind about his time with Thesiger, May God Protect Me From My Friends about Sicillian revolutionary and mafia types and most of all Lords of the Atlas about feudal Morocco are all brilliant lesser known books of his too and well worth reading.

In reply to Douglas Griffin: If you want to go somewhere spooky go to where Ring of Bright Water was based (Sandaig?) we really felt we were intruding when we went there and left quickly.

In reply to ice.solo:


In 1985 I went to Inverie from Mallaig on the ferry. Ring of Bright Water came up somehow, so I asked the ferryman "Sandaig, where he lived--quite near here, isn't it? Did you know Gavin Maxwell at all?"

Long pause, then he puffed out his cheeks and said "Oh aye, that old bastard." And nothing else.

I've been a Maxwell fan most of my life, but reading between the lines of Maxwell's own writing, Richard Frere's excellent memoir Maxwell's Ghost, and stuff I've heard locally, I'd be inclined to say

a) Mij, the first otter, did not die accidentally
b) All those trips to Morocco were not just about looking at pretty views.

In reply to Removed User:

Aye, been there - quite a spot.

In reply to Tim Chappell:

It's often interesting to hear local opinion, especially with such complex characters. Same with George Mackay Brown in Stromness.

In reply to Douglas Griffin: on the subject of Tex Geddes, his book Hebridean Sharker has been reprinted - it is a good read if you are into West Coast tomfoolery....

In reply to Tim Chappell: Mij was killed by a ditch digger in Glen Elg.....very unfortunate really, but then again, it was a very normal thing to do for a lot of local people in the western isles, in those days. Otters were seen to be a pest as they tend to kill plenty of Salmon.
I think you'll find that a lot of the locals at that time viewed Gavin Maxwell as a bit of an eccentric. He disregarded the views of the locals, who valued game over wild life, and Mij was taken out by a reflex action, by the ditch digger who didn't recognise the otter as a pet, but rather as a pest.....the lad who killed Mij received hate mail right up to his death and when the book, then film was released, Some locals sympathised with the Ditch Digger and resented Gavin Maxwell for including that detail.....and in some cases they still do.
Now wild life is good for tourism, the area is now home to an abundance of Otters...etc, I even get one big male traveling up the burn through my garden.

In reply to donny:

Thanks!

In reply to lynx3555:

My point was that I doubt it was merely 'unfortunate'. I admit I'm speculating, but on the basis of what I've heard and read I doubt it was just done 'in the normal way of things'. Given how much GM was disliked by a lot of locals, isn't it natural to suspect it was done to get at Maxwell?

But if you know better, which of course you might given that you live in Kyle, I'm certainly happy to retract my suggestion.

In reply to Jim Lancs:

I was thinking much the same last month, whilst on the Bruce Watt ferry to Inverie.
The skipper cut the engine as two basking sharks were sighted, their dorsal and tail fins above the swell. They swam past, mouths agape and gill rakers flaring, only about 6-8' from the boat.
Apart from the wonder of seeing them at such close range, it was also a moment to reflect on how Maxwell mythologised his involvement in the killing of them.

As you say, different era and attitudes.
Nowadays they are 'hunted', but for different reasons

http://www.exeter.ac.uk/news/featurednews/title_315736_en.html

In reply to Tim Chappell: it is possible that what you're suggesting is possible. Dr Mary was looking after the Otter while Gavin Maxwell was away....according to the ditch digger he thought the otter was a wild otter and his reflex action was to batter it with a shovel. I doubt any wild otters at that time would have come anywhere near a human, I'm sure the ditch digger would have been aware of how shy Otters are of humans and he would also have been aware of the pet Otter in the area.
Gavin Maxwell was disliked by the locals but over time he began to become accepted by quite a lot, this was due to his visits to the local schools and his time spent as the light house keeper in Kyle...but alas you will find some die hard "red necks" who would, I'm sure, still express there dislike of the man.

In reply to Tim Chappell:

Yep, just what i found.

I still am fascinated by the mans life and stories, but seems there was a lot thats not mentioned tho hinted at.

I liked sandaig. Beautiful place and surprised it was still so wild.

In reply to llechwedd: They seem to be making a huge come back these days....I did hear that it's something like a 5 fold increase in there numbers

In reply to lynx3555:

Their lifespan is put at about 50 years.
Earlier on this year there was speculation that numbers sighted round the UK were down because of a degree or two reduction in sea temperature for the time of year. Presumably they were off hoovering plankton somewhere else.
By August though, Exeter University/SNH had tagged their target number for the year so numbers were at least as expected.

Seems that basking sharks follow plankton blooms at depths down to about 1000m so any sightings of them off the UK coast are the 'tip of the iceberg'.

I don't know when they received protected status.
Maybe that has had less effect than the cessation of commercial fishing after numbers collapsed.

In reply to Douglas Griffin:

I found HAAV a bit depressing. The contrast between his anthropomorphising of the otters and his attitude to the sharks was fairly stark. Sentimental of me, I expect.

jcm

In reply to johncoxmysteriously:

Probably avoid 'Raven seek thy brother' the sequel to 'Ring', then. Depressing stuff, makes you wonder what Maxwell had done to upset the gods... those trips to Morocco possibly?

In reply to Douglas Griffin:

I've sailed into the inlet at Soay. It is a very atmospheric place to anchor for the night. The ruins of Maxwell's processing station remain. I too could never get my head around his love for the otters and how he was happy to exploit the sharks.

In reply to John Rushby:

Aye it's a strange one. From what I recall from the Botting biography, Maxwell spent a lot of his youth shooting birds too. But maybe he just changed - 'Ring of Bright Water' was a good few years after 'Harpoon at a Venture'. Seem to recall from the bio too that his flat in London (towards the end of his life) was filled with exotic animals (live ones!)

In reply to John Rushby:

But that muddle is all over the place. I am surrounded by Sanctuaries for cats, dogs, seals, monkeys and owls, but also by abattoirs for the unlucky animals that the same clientele chooses not to save, but to eat.

In reply to lynx3555:

I misread that at first glance.

In reply to Douglas Griffin:

As a child I was fascinated by Ring of Bright Water and yes, I have also visited the site of the cottage, where there is only a flat area and a memorial.

More recently I've read some Thesiger and been really impressed by the man. I was amused at the story of Thesiger bumping into Eric Newby and his companion during their short walk in the Hindu Kush and sneering at their camping mattresses, saying they must be some kind of pansies.

Eric Newby is another writer whose books I enjoy.

In reply to Rigid Raider:

Thesiger is another level, but check out peter fleming too.

In reply to Rigid Raider:


Yes, that moment is the icing on the cake of that brilliant, brilliant book A Short Walk.

Out of Maxwell, Thesiger, and Newby, I know who I'd rather have a beer with

In reply to Douglas Griffin:


Thanks for posting about this, Douglas. It prompted me to go out (well, e-out) and buy Kathleen Raine's Autobiographies. I read the Maxwell stuff first, which was late on in the third volume. I'm slightly regretting that: on balance I was right to get it out of the way so I wasn't speed-reading everything else in my hurry to get to it, but on the other hand when you read it it's clear it needs its context.

She was one strange, strange lady. Hugely clever, hugely interesting (including philosophically interesting: her views are Yeatsian, Platonist, and esoteric), hugely screwed up. Especially about, and indeed by, Maxwell.

I can certainly recommend her, especially (in the first volume) on early childhood and the destruction of rural England.

I didn't know before reading it that she and Maxwell were both part of the same circle, centred on Elias Canetti, that Iris Murdoch was part of. This means that I am 3 removes from Maxwell going via Murdoch (because I've met Philippa Foot, who knew Murdoch), as well as 1 remove from Maxwell going via that ferryman...

In reply to Tim Chappell:


(PS Canetti wrote Crowds And Power. He's the Philosopher in Murdoch's The Philosopher's Pupil.)