The name of Gavin Maxwell will be forever linked with his Ring of Bright Water (1960), a narrative of his experiences in keeping otters on the remote northwest coast of Scotland. Maxwell managed to infuse his account of his difficult, isolated, solitary existence in a cabin, bereft of electricity or plumbing, with a universal spiritual resonance matched by few nature writers in the twentieth century. His other books, praised by critics and beloved by readers, chronicle Maxwell's impractical schemes and peripatetic travels, from shark hunting in the sea around the Hebrides to shooting ducks among the reed islands of Iraq and mingling with the nobility of the remote Atlas Mountains of Morocco. The records of his travels and his involvement with the natural world are marked by a lyrical style rooted in the daily pains of making one's way in the world. While much of his work seems the...