Gavin Maxwell

Gavin Maxwell holds a special place, not only in Scottish literature, but also in the hearts and minds of animal lovers throughout the world. He was born in Wigtownshire, three months before his father was killed in the First World War. A grandson to the formidable countryman Sir Herbert Maxwell, it was his Aunt who encouraged him in natural history and painting.

Gavin Maxwell was a sickly and reclusive child, he hated public school and was easily distracted at Oxford University, content to roam the local countryside collecting insects and birds’ eggs, wildfowling and looking after animal waifs and strays. He dabbled in journalism and established a collection of wildfowl back at his family home.

When the Second War began he became an instructor at the Special Operations Executive in the West Highlands, training secret agents to work in occupied countries. Some claim that he would have made a good diplomat but instead Maxwell’s restless spirit was drawn back to the Hebrides after the war, where he bought the island of Soay and established an ill-fated basking shark fishery. Although he revelled in the excitement (which he described so vividly in his first book ‘Harpoon at a Venture’ in 1952) the business proved a financial disaster.

Maxwell then turned his hand to painting, motor racing, and researching a book about a notorious Sicilian bandit. In 1956 he accompanied the famous desert explorer Wilfred Thesiger to Iraq, a trip that was to change his life and make him an international, if reluctant, celebrity.