Gavin Maxwell, a shark's worst nightmare

I am sure there is a basking shark hunting sequence in the film version of Ring of Bright Water. Its years since I've seen it but I'm sure I recall this.
 
Chlidonias said:
People on here may know Gavin Maxwell as an animal-lover and conservationist. Turns out he was also a mass-slaughterer of Basking Sharks in the Hebrides in the 1940s.

Some gruesome tales in the following Guardian article:
Shark attack: Gavin Maxwell's Harpoon at a Venture
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He was also a wartime Special Operations Executive instructor, and a polymath who wrote widely on such diverse subjects as Sicilian bandits, tuna fishing and North African royalty. He also supplied the foundation stock of wild geese for the then Severn Wildfowl Trust, having managed to keep some of his waterfowl collection going through the Second World War. I've never thought of him as an animal lover (always seems a pejorative term like 'bunny hugger'), or a conservationist. The latter term has only really come to prominence since his death.
I don't think it appropriate to denigrate his attempts to make a living from Basking Sharks. If you read the book, it will be seen he was self-questioning about the morality of it, unusual in those days when the great whales were freely hunted.
Maxwell changed the public attitude to otters, but did a lot of other worthwhile things as well.
To get a balanced picture of a brilliant, charismatic but flawed and often despairing man, read the biography written by the (recently deceased) Douglas Botting.
I gave up reading the Guardian after many years, when it appeared to be jumping on an anti-zoo bandwagon. However, I suspect the article in question is yet another idiot attempting to stir up ill-informed opinion.
 
Gavin Maxwell was a troubled genius, his books are beautifully written and "A Ring of Bright Water" is an all time favourite. He opened the eyes of the general public to the possible rich relationship we can have with wild animals. His book on hunting Basking Sharks is gruesome, although it is difficult to judge the actions of people when viewed from another time.
 
Carl Jones said:
Gavin Maxwell was a troubled genius, his books are beautifully written and "A Ring of Bright Water" is an all time favourite. He opened the eyes of the general public to the possible rich relationship we can have with wild animals. His book on hunting Basking Sharks is gruesome, although it is difficult to judge the actions of people when viewed from another time.
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Thank you Carl. Can I suggest anyone interested in Gavin Maxwell reads his autobiography of childhood 'The House of Elrig', and then the rest!
It is regrettable that he never -- to my knowledge -- wrote up his Lapland expedition of the 1930s, in search of Lesser White-fronted Geese. There are tantalising references in some of his other writings, but I would like to have known more.
Anyone whose interest in the natural world was kindled by the television programme 'The Really Wild Show', owes something to Maxwell. It was him who encouraged and nurtured Terry Nutkins, as one of his teenage otter keepers, and later lead presenter on the show.
 
FBBird said:
Thank you Carl. Can I suggest anyone interested in Gavin Maxwell reads his autobiography of childhood 'The House of Elrig', and then the rest!
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House of Elrig is a good read isn't it. From memory, he was a Percy, a 'younger brother' of the heir to the Alnwick Castle Estate in Northumberland. He had very many interests and was a fascinating man. Somewhere I also have his book 'God Protect Me from My Friends' about the life and death of the Sicilian bandit Salvatore Guiliano. His interest in Otters seems to have been entirely coincidental too, having been given a cub while on a visit to the Marsh Arabs of Iraq. He always came across as both a brilliant and a very tortured person, which is often the case.
 
FBBird said:
It was him who encouraged and nurtured Terry Nutkins, as one of his teenage otter keepers, and later lead presenter on the show.
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...and who lost the tip of a finger as a souvenir from one of Maxwell's peeved Otters, (was it Edal?) showing how they aren't quite as lovable as the popular image suggests.
 
I have read, or tried to read, all of Gavin Maxwell's books and can only cope with the lighter ones. Some are just too dark for my tastes. As Phillip suggests anyone interested should read the brilliant biography by Douglas Botting, which portrays him as a very complex man who was difficult and contrary. Pertinax notes many brilliant people have their problems; although they make the world a colourful and more interesting place. I really need to read about him again, it is many years since I picked up one of his books.
 
Carl Jones said:
Some are just too dark for my tastes. As Phillip suggests anyone interested should read the brilliant biography by Douglas Botting, which portrays him as a very complex man who was difficult and contrary.
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I should perhaps try and read this, like you, its years since I read anything of or about him. But 'dark' is how I always thought of him too...
 
Pertinax said:
...and who lost the tip of a finger as a souvenir from one of Maxwell's peeved Otters, (was it Edal?) showing how they aren't quite as lovable as the popular image suggests.
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Wasn't it more like two fingers?
 
FBBird said:
It was Edal. Teko also had a go at somebody (Jimmy Watt?).
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I thought it was only one finger, but can't really remember. After that nobody went in with Edal anymore until Maxwell later rediscovered his earlier relationship with her.
 
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