Editing Gavin Maxwell (section)

==Career==
In 1956, Maxwell toured the [[Tigris-Euphrates river system|reed marshes]] of southern Iraq with explorer [[Wilfred Thesiger]], Maxwell's wife's first cousin once removed. Maxwell's account of their trip appears in ''A Reed Shaken By The Wind'', later published under the title ''People of the Reeds''. It was hailed by ''[[The New York Times]]'' as "near perfect".<ref>quoted in {{cite ODNB |last=Stott |first=Louis |title=Oxford Dictionary of National Biography |year=2004 |chapter=Maxwell, Gavin |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/34959}}</ref>

Since 1948, Maxwell had been using a borrowed cottage in [[Sandaig]]<ref>At {{coord|57|10|06|N|5|41|06|W}}, to a house which had been a [[Crofting|croft]] and home to the local lighthouse keeper of the Sandaig Light southwest of [[Glenelg, Highland|Glenelg]].</ref> as a writer's retreat (which he called ''Camusfeàrna'' in his books).  Sandaig was a small community opposite [[Isleornsay]] on a remote part of the Scottish mainland. This is where his "otter books" are set. After ''Ring of Bright Water'' (1960), his newfound fame did not sit well with him:

{{blockquote|He couldn't cope with it. He wasn't a strong man that way, so he couldn't deal with it. But he didn't want anyone to know that, so he started drinking more; he started smoking more. And the pressures became more because we started spending more money. Next thing, agent was on the phone: 'We're broke; we need a sequel.' So, he wrote ''The Rocks Remain'', the sequel to ''Ring of Bright Water'', which was a disaster because it was written in a hurry. It didn't have the same beauty, it didn't have the same ''anything'' as ''Ring of Bright Water''. That was the beginning of the end really. — [[Terry Nutkins]], 2010<ref name=bbb/>}}

In ''The Rocks Remain'' (1963), the otters Edal, Teko, Mossy and Monday show great differences in personality. The book demonstrates the difficulty Maxwell was having, possibly as a result of his mental state, in remaining focused on one project and the impact that had on his otters, Sandaig and his own life.

In 1960–1962, he made several trips to [[Morocco]] and [[Algeria]].  He published accounts of his experiences in North Africa, including his description of the aftermath of the 1960 Agadir earthquake, in ''The Rocks Remain'' (1963).  In Morocco, he was assisted by the monarchy's head of Press Services and Minister of Information [[Moulay Ahmed Alaoui]], and by the anticolonial activist and journalist [[Margaret Pope (journalist and anticolonial activist)|Margaret Pope]], who Maxwell referred to in ''The Rocks Remain'' under a pseudonym, "Prudence Hazell."  Pope recruited Maxwell to travel to Algiers in January 1961 to collect information for the Algerian revolutionary [[National Liberation Front (Algeria)|National Liberation Front (FLN).]]  Maxwell also began research for a non-fiction book tracing the dramatic lives of the last rulers of Marrakech under the French, eventually published in 1966 as ''Lords of the Atlas: The Rise and Fall of the House of [[T'hami El Glaoui|Glaoua]] 1893–1956''.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Segalla |first=Spencer |date=2024 |title=Gavin Maxwell in Morocco and Algeria with Margaret Pope and Ahmed Alaoui: public relations networks, anti-imperialism, and travel writing in the era of decolonisation |url=https://hcommons.org/deposits/item/hc:68281/ |journal=The Journal of North African Studies |volume=29 |issue=6 |language=en |pages=927–960 |doi=10.1080/13629387.2024.2380397 |issn=1362-9387|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Botting |first=Douglas |title=The Saga of Ring of Bright Water: The Enigma of Gavin Maxwell |publisher=Eland |year=1993 |isbn=9781897784853 |pages=308–322 |language=en}}</ref> During the Moroccan [[Years of Lead (Morocco)|Years of Lead]], the regime there considered his book subversive and banned its importation.

In ''The House of Elrig'' (1965), Maxwell describes his family history and his passion for the calf-country, [[Galloway]], where he was born. It was during this period that he met [[Ornithology|ornithologist]] [[Peter Scott]] and the young Terry Nutkins, who later became a children's television presenter.

In 1968, Maxwell's Sandaig home was destroyed by fire, in which Edal perished,<ref name=bbb>''Britain By Bike'', episode 6 - The Scottish Highlands, BBC, 2010</ref> and he moved to the lighthouse keepers' cottages on [[Eilean Bàn, Lochalsh|Eilean Bàn (White Island)]], an island between the [[Isle of Skye]] and the Scottish mainland by the village of [[Kyleakin]]. He invited [[John Lister-Kaye]] to join him on Eilean Bàn to  help him build a zoo on the island and work on a book about British wild mammals. Lister-Kaye accepted the invitation, but both projects were abandoned when Maxwell died from [[lung cancer]]<ref name="auto">{{Cite web|title=BBC Scotland - How Scotland's otters became famous: the inspirational story of Gavin Maxwell|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/13XTsndKsZMkqKQgMvrltmj/how-scotland-s-otters-became-famous-the-inspirational-story-of-gavin-maxwell|access-date=2021-11-14|website=BBC|language=en-GB}}</ref> in a hospital in Inverness<ref name="auto"/> the following year.<ref name="Lister-Kaye">{{cite book| author=Lister-Kaye, John |title=The White Island |publisher=Longman |year=1972 |isbn=0-582-10903-5}}</ref>

Maxwell's literary agent was Peter Janson-Smith,<ref>{{cite book |last=Frere |first=Richard |title=Maxwell's Ghost |publisher=[[Victor Gollancz]] |year=1976 |page=71 |isbn=0-575-02044-X}}</ref> who was also agent for [[James Bond]] author [[Ian Fleming]]. Maxwell also lived in [[Paultons Square]] in [[London]].{{cn|date=March 2025}}