The reason I don't recommend this book, despite the nice writing and decriptions of the Western Highlands, is for one dark fact: a number of wild otters died for Maxwell's selfish pursuit of having a wild animal as a pet. This is not the story of a man who raises abandoned wild otters cubs in the Western Highlands and releases them but the story of a man who takes otters from the wild in Iraq and Africa and tries to raise them in Scotland. What this story also tells us is that, if you are of a privillaged class, you can have any wild animal you want as your pet. Today this is illegal "pet" trading and it is responsible for pushing certain species to the edge of extinction. I know that at the time this practice was not looked down upon as it is today and certain other nature writers (Durrell, Heinrich) engage in the same practice but with a more educated populus it should be clear: wild animals are not pets and they should stay wild!