About The Author

GAVIN MAXWELL
 Gavin Maxwell, (born July 15, 1914, Elrig, near Mochrum, Wigtown, Scot.—died
Sept. 6, 1969, Inverness, Inverness), Scottish author and naturalist.

 Maxwell was educated at Stowe School and the University of Oxford, then became a
freelance journalist, though ornithology remained his special interest. He served with
the Scots Guard in World War II. In 1945 he bought the island of Soay and described
in Harpoon at a Venture (1952; also published as Harpoon Venture) his attempt to
establish a shark fishery there. The best-selling Ring of Bright Water (1960) describes
his life with two pet otters in his seaboard cottage in the west Highlands of Scotland;
The Rocks Remain (1963) is a sequel. Maxwell’s prolonged stay in Sicily resulted in
two fine books, God Protect Me from My Friends (1956; also published as Bandit),
about the bandit Salvatore Giuliano, and The Pains of Death (1959), on the poverty-
stricken lives of the islanders. A Reed Shaken by the Wind (1957; also published as
People of the Reeds) is an account of his travels among the marsh dwellers of southern
Iraq.
 Elements of The Prose
The story, Mijbil the Otter, begins with the writer, Gavin Maxwell, who was travelling to
Basra with his friend to the Consulate-General to collect and answer their mail from Europe.
 Maxwell expressed his desire to keep an otter as a pet instead of a dog, as he felt very
lonely after losing his pet dog earlier.