Ring of Bright Water is an autobiographical work by Gavin Maxwell. A fictional film of the same name was made from it. Maxwell's book describes how he brought a smooth-coated Otter back from Iraq and raised it in 'Camusfearna' (Sandaig), on the west coast of Scotland. Hailed a masterpiece when it was first published, the story of Gavin Maxwell's life with otters on the remote west coast of Scotland remains one of the most lyrical, moving descriptions of a man's relationship with the natural world.
This edition marking the centenary of Maxwell's birth has illustrations by Mark Adlington and a foreword by Kate Humble.
Gavin Maxwell was born in 1914. In 1945 he bought the small Hebridean island of Soay and tried to establish a shark fishery. This resulted in his first book, Harpoon at a Venture. In 1960 Ring of Bright Water appeared, of which there are more than a million copies in print in English. An abridged and pictorial children's version, The Otter's Tale, was published in 1962, and a sequel, The Rocks Remain, in 1963. Gavin Maxwell died in 1969.