More Otter Man

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31972, 26 April 1969, Page 4

More Otter Man

Raven Seek Thy Brother. By Garin Maxwell. Longmans. 210 pp.

Gavin Maxwell’s "Ring of Bright Water" published in 1960 was an immediate and ) enormous success. Three (years later he published a sequel “Tbe Rocks Remain,” but he tells us early in “Raven Seek Thy Brother” that that was an incomplete story treated in a semi-farci-cal vein he would now find impossible. This latest work is the true sequel to the story of his otters and his Highland home. It is not a very happy story to read, though there are patches which recall the joy of the earlier book. Gavin Maxwell has combined two elements of his writing and gives us both an autobiographical account of the years 1963-8 and a completion of the story of his West High-

land refuge at Camusfearna with its human and animal inhabitants. The author has, in recent years, been dogged with more than one man’s share of illhealth, yet his account of these years is devoid of self pity and indeed Is treated in an almost detached manner. On the other hand when he deals with the need to shut up Camusfearna and send his otters. Edal and Teko. away his anguish and despair are poignantly discernible. Against this sombre background of illness, accidents and financial worry the moments of joy in his reconciliation with the otters and of excitment in his trip to Ireland to discover the possibilities of eider farming shine out all the more clearly. Those who have not read his earlier books may find Mr Maxwell’s assumption of a knowledge of the history of Camusfearna annoying. Moreover his disregard for a chronological scale creates some difficulty in keeping events in order in the reader’s mind. Perhaps, of necessity, the book is episodic with many digressions, but it would be ungracious to cavil overmuch, especially as some of the digressions (e.g., that on the mysterious happenings surrounding Kyleakin Lighthouse) are just as fascinating as the main story Mr Maxwell tells. "Raven Seek Thy Brother" is amply illustrated with photographs of the (otters, the personalities, and (the countryside.

Why do people still read Aesop’s fables? Whatever the reason, it is certainly not for moral guidance. And it is here that Neil Rowe’s booklet "Little Big Mouth” (Cockerel Print) goes wrong. This “story of a little girl who became Prime Minister" contains al! too little story and too much left-wing moral to interest “the children of today," unless they have | already developed strong 1 political sympathies. The book is illustrated with excellent caricatures by Brent (Wong.