It is the 1950s and Gavin Maxwell goes to live in an abandoned house at a remote beach on the west coast of Scotland near Glenelg. He named his home, a haven for wildlife, Camusfearna and settled there with a smooth-coated otter named Mijbil which he had picked up while in Iraq. He first took the otter to the London Zoological Society, where it was decided that this was a previously unknown subspecies, and it was named after him, Lutrogale perspicillata maxwelli (or colloquially, “Maxwell’s otter”). After Mij was killed, he was replaced by Edal, an otter from Africa. Ring of Bright Water chronicles Maxwell’s first ten years with the otters, brilliantly evoking life with these playful animals in this natural paradise.