The House of Elrig

by Gavin Maxwell

This is the personal story of Gavin Maxwell's boyhood, most of which he spent, in fact or in fancy, at the House of Elrig, a lonely, windswept house on the moorlands of Galloway. This is the house which, together with the influence of his relations, shaped his interest in living creatures and his love of wild country and wilderness, and led the way to the life he describes in "Ring of Bright Water". It covers his boyhood, public school education in England, and return to Scotland.

Genres: Nonfiction, Biography, Scotland, Autobiography, Memoir, Biography Memoir

205 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1965

About the author

Gavin Maxwell was a Scottish naturalist and author, best known for his work with otters. He was born in Scotland in 1914 to Lieutenant-Colonel Aymer Maxwell and Lady Mary Percy, whose father was the seventh Duke of Northumberland. He was raised in the small village of Elrig, near Port William, which he later described in his autobiography The House of Elrig (1965).

After serving in the Second World War as an instructor with the Special Operations Executive, he purchased the Isle of Soay in the Inner Hebrides, where he attempted to establish a shark fishery. In 1956 he travelled to the Tigris Basin in Southern Iraq with the explorer Wilfred Thesiger to explore the area's vast unspoiled marshes; Maxwell's account of their travels was published as A Reed Shaken by the Wind (1959). It was there that he adopted the otter Mijbil. The story of how Maxwell brought Mijbil back to rise in his isolated home in Sandaig (named Camusfeàrna in the book) on the west coast of Scotland, is told in Ring of Bright Water (1960); the book sold more than two million copies and in 1969 was made into a film. It was the first in Maxwell's 'otter trilogy', for which he remains best known: its sequels were The Rocks Remain (1963) and Raven Seek Thy Brother (1968).

The house at Sandaig was destroyed by fire in 1968, and Maxwell moved into a former lighthouse keeper's cottage on the nearby island of Eilean Bàn. He died in 1969. His Eilean Bàn home remains a museum and the island a wildlife sanctuary.

Reviews

[Sandybeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was my second Slightly Foxed Editions book from my subscription. My edition is number 1532. I did not know anything about Gavin Maxwell and I have never read Ring of Bright Water so this was an interesting read for me. I much prefered the first half of the autobiography, with the descriptions of Elrig, Maxwell’s early childhood and his first boarding schools. The later part of the book seemed rushed and I disliked the last few chapters with its somewhat abrupt ending.

[Heather Browning · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was well-written and at times quite funny (the story about a mishap with his 'nether-coiffure' cracked me up), but for the most part didn't hang together well. It seemed more like a collection of reminiscences than a coherent narrative; and though many of the stories were very entertaining, as a whole it never totally engaged.

[Stacy · Rating 4 out of 5]

He says his boyhood was very unusual and I would agree. It was so far from the upbringing of anyone I know and so immersed in aspects of nature that make me cringe to contemplate. He didn't just get dirty, he doesn't even seem to flinch when a bird upchucks in his face and he and his brothers had no qualms about bad smells and vermin that they uncover. You don't really realize what Elrig meant to him (except as expressed in his biological and zoological descriptions) until he was separated from it, either by schooling or illness. Through what his teachers might have called daydreaming, Gavin was able to enjoy Elrig in his mind in a very detailed fashion. Even before this, I started to enjoy the book more through the insights into the British upper class schools and what pains the system brought him. We find that, through his own trials and misery with staff and horrible other boys and misguidance about sex, Maxwell has come away with the conclusion that we as adults don't get adolescents "due to a willful, often compulsive forgetfulness".

[Mary Warnement · Rating 3 out of 5]

I hadn't heard of the sect of Irvingites within the Catholic Church before, so there's something I didn't expect to lear from Gavin Maxwell's memoir of his youth and how being sent to various public schools interfered with his true desire to live at his parent's home Elrig near his family's estate. I knew the British public school system messed up many a young man, and Maxwell provides yet more examples, most of them amusingly accepted. I'm not sure any adolescent experiences sexual education with ease, but his experience clearly left a mark. Though naturalist writings don't usually attract me, I may look for some of his other writings, in particular The Ring of Bright Water and People of the Reeds.

[Kitty · Rating 4 out of 5]

A charming description of the author's childhood and adolescence, his developing interest in the natural world encouraged by the Scottish landscape around his home of Elrig and by his many (more or less) eccentric relations. Maxwell is brilliant at depicting characters with the perfect nugget of dialogue conjuring up each individual voice. He is equally good at relating the experience of adolescence, that is at once universal and individual, touching and funny. I intend to read all his other writing anew.

[Johanna · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting enough and good prose but there are a lot of books out there about upper class boys going to school. The sections on his exploits with animals and exploring nature were better - it's clear that is the author's passion - but a dated read at this point.

[Sylvester (Taking a break in 2023) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Review to come...

[Brian Gowthorpe · Rating 5 out of 5]

An outstanding short memoir beautifully reprinted by Slightly Foxed editions. Gavin Maxwell wrote very well indeed and was already in his fifties when this was first published in 1965; he had had many decades to reach conclusions about the painful experiences of school to which his terribly sensitive temperament condemned him. Sex was poorly explained and even then he was a poor listener, too often away in his head at Elrig, the family house or up on the Galloway Moors either communing with or shooting birds and animals. The otherness of an aristocratic childhood comes across very clearly. His mother was a sister of the Duke of Northumberland and his father heir to the Maxwell estates, both old-established borders families. The sense of a feudal tradition was still strong in his father whose expected military service tradition led to his death in World War I. The awkwardness of the adolescent, agonising over sex, socially awkward and not yet knowing who you are or what you can do is described with painful accuracy.

[Doodles McC · Rating 2 out of 5]

As a teen I didn't really like this autobiography. -- Dry. -- Gavin Maxwell 1914 – 1969 was a Scottish naturalist and author, best known for his non-fiction writing and his work with otters. The House of Elrig, Galloway, examines Maxwell’s earliest childhood up until he’s around 17 or 18. With descriptions of homesickness, of longing for the country, and the complete bafflement that suddenly finding yourself in a large school causes when you’re not used to it, but there’s much more to it than that.

First published in 1965, five years after Ring of Bright Water had made him a household name, Gavin’s mother, Lady Mary Percy, daughter of the Duke of Northumberland, was a somewhat grander proposition. Gavin felt on the outside of the Percy elitist circle. He also talks a lot about his own sexual innocence at school, which isn’t entirely convincing. In 1965 it was probably a wise precaution for a man with secrets to keep, homosexuality still being a crime in Scotland at that time.

[Roberta · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5, rounded down.

I love books that are also time machines, allowing us to visit places and times we can't live ourselves. While this is not a perfect memoir, Maxwell's voice and dry wit recounts a set of reminiscences of a singular childhood and adolescence in an environment that will never come again.

[Charlie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having read and enjoyed Ring of Bright Water, it was interesting to hear about the authors in's Childhood adventures. He writes great descriptive native and takes you a different time and makes you want to be there. Great Book.

[Metaphorosis · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars, Metaphorosis Reviews

Summary
Gavin Maxwell's memoir of his childhood - family, nature, and schooling - in Scotland.

Review
As did most, I expect, I came to Gavin Maxwell via Ring of Bright Water, a book about otters that enthralled me so much that I followed up with its sequel The Rocks Remain. For some reason, I never got around to the third otter book, Raven, Seek thy Brother, but did eventually pick up Maxwell’s memoir of childhood, The House of Elrig. This time around, I decided to read the books I have in chronological order.

While Maxwell is a skilled writer, there’s no denying that he comes across in this book of his earliest life as, not to put too fine a point on it, a bit whiny. He seems to remember every slight, every misunderstanding, and not only remembered them, to have failed to evaluate almost any of them in the light of adult, objective distance – the one exception being references to sex that passed him by at the time, but that now cast a new light on old interactions.

While it doesn’t make young Maxwell very appealing – in addition to being whiny, he seems to have been singularly unresponsive – it is interesting. He was born in a literal manor, the child of a titled, well-connected family, and went to elite schools – most apparently miserable. The book’s three main subjects are school, relatives – his curious family, and animals – though he admits to an odd dichotomy in his reverence for them coexistent with a willingness to kill them for sport – as evidenced by his first book, Harpoon at a Venture, about a failed shark killing business (or fishery).

On this re-reading, I had a mixed reaction to The House of Elrig. One the one hand, it tells us more about Maxwell; on the other, it’s frankly fairly dull after a while, especially once he goes off to school. The book ends rather abruptly, though there’s no sign he ever intended a sequel. While I started here for this re-read of his work, I can’t recommend that to others. If you do, you’ll never get past it to the lively mischievous otters of later books. Better to read these in publication order, and only if you wish to understand how the adult Maxwell ended up where he did.

[Mia · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a lovely book. I have long been a fan of Gavin Maxwell but somehow this book has escaped me. Sweet and poignant with a schoolboy's uncertainties and angst and laugh out loud funny in his description of Eustace's visit to the beautiful little farmhouse.

[Trisha · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sigh--just loved it. How could I not -- so surprised to see the discussion of the Northumberland family. For me, fascinating.