THE MAX MAXWELL BIOGRAPHY
This is the authentic biography of Max Maxwell hand whritten by him sometime before he died suicide in Ko Lanta southern Thailand.
LIFE IS WONDERFULL !
I HAVE NO COUNTRY ! NO HOME !
NO FAMILY ! I AM FREE
1940 October 8 born in Bombay, during a devastating cyclone.
1951 Traveled to London where I lived alone and acted as a tourist guide before starting
the first of many boarding schools (where I learned northing ).
1958 Went to art college and was expelled (kicked out ).
1959 Started my own jazz club, and traveled for two weeks with Miles Davis, from
whom I learned NO SMALL TALKS, OR BORING CONVERSATIONS.
1960 Traveled in Switzerland, Provence, and Spain.
1961 Became art director of Queen Magazine London, and started going to New York
and Paris several times a year.
1962 Was highest paid art director in Europe, and offered art directorship ol Look and
Esquire Magazine in New York wich I refused.
1963 Became art director of Vogue Magazine, London.
1964 Returned to Queen Magazine, hung out with the Beatles and all the sixsties
London crowd. Decided I did not want become rich and famous, AVOIDING
THE APATHY AND EMPINESS OF AFFLUENCE.
1965 Retired from Queen, to be a photographer, started living in Spain, travelling
world-wide on assignments of my choice, and was one of the highest paid
photographers in Europe, using Nassau Bahamas as my winter studio location.
1966 3 months photo trip in India and Ceylon.
1968 Had a major photographic exibition at Photokina, Koln, Germany, at the same time
architecturally restoring rural estates in Spain, for fees as high as 50.000 us dollars
was offered a million dollar commission to buy several farms , for a corporation,
which I refused , THAT MUCH MONEY WOULD RUIN MY LIFESTYLE.
1971 Traveled for a year in Africa, from Senegal to Ethiopia.
1972 Started living ijn Goa in winter and Kashmir in summer.
1978 Began spending summer in Ladakh and winter in Goa, visited Afghanistan.
1985 Left Goa to windsurf , and live in Boracay island, Philippines.
1987 Started spending a few months in Bali, Hawaii, the Dominican republic, st. Martin
Still based on Boracay island.
1995 Started magical travels in Tibet.
1997 Discovered my paradise island of Ko Lanta, in the Andaman sea, where I spend 5
months a year, then Eastern Tibet and Lhasa, Ladakh 3 months in summer, with
a few weeks in California and Santa Fe.
I BELIEVE THAT POVERTY IS WEALTH AND SOLITUDE GOOD COMPANY
I HAVE NEVER EXPERIENCED FEAR, BOREDOM OR LONELINESS
LIVING IN PRIMITIVE LUXURY THE ENVY OF MILLIONAIRES
20 YEARS WITHOUT ELECTRICITY, ALWAYS FANTASTIC LOCATIONS
SURROUNDED BY THE WONDERS OF NATURE.
MAX MAXWELL
August 22nd, 2008 at 9:06 am
ke bottaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!
ach
August 22nd, 2008 at 12:55 pm
Hai vistooooo ….era un grande !!
August 22nd, 2008 at 2:00 pm
[...] fellow had a totally anti-routine life…it’s worth taking a look at his “biography” whic my friend Gino edited recently… [...]
September 6th, 2008 at 11:15 am
mamma mia che emozione sentire la vita di max…. aaaccchhhhh!!
October 22nd, 2008 at 6:33 am
This is great info to know.
October 29th, 2008 at 3:40 am
Hi Thelma why do you find this a great info ? Did you know the guy ?
November 17th, 2008 at 7:51 pm
Max Maxwell. So many great memories. In London and Deya 1966. He made himself a living memorie for me forever in my heart. We met in Portobello road 8 july 1966. I worked as a model and Max as a photographer. We had such a lot of fun. Every evening we had dinner at Alvaro´s an italian restaurant in King´s Road and after we often went to Sibylla´s a club where we were dancing. Max was a great dancer. I left London to live with Max in Son Rullan outside Deya. After some month our story was just a story. I left for Paris…last time he phoned me was 1971…he told me: Ingrid you will be beautiful in all your ages. I´l remember that one.
December 4th, 2008 at 10:14 am
Max Maxwell. So many great memories. In London and Deya 1966. He made himself a living memorie for me forever in my heart. We met in Portobello road 8 july 1966. I worked as a model and Max as a photographer. We had such a lot of fun. Every evening we had dinner at Alvaro´s an italian restaurant in King´s Road and after we often went to Sibylla´s a club where we were dancing. Max was a great dancer. I left London to live with Max in Son Rullan outside Deya. After some month our story was just a story. I left for Paris…last time he phoned me was 1971…he told me: Ingrid you will be beautiful in all your ages. I´l remember that one.
December 6th, 2008 at 5:05 am
Hi Ingrid so you were ingaged in a relation with Max I guess ! Do you have any picture from that time ? Would be interesting to publish them here in this blog just for some of his friends from Boracay. Thanks for your comment .
January 9th, 2009 at 2:43 pm
Not sure why no mention is made of Max’s wife Antonia and his little girl?? I too moved to Son Rullan in Deya just before Christmas in 1969 to work as a nanny/au pair for Max and his wife for a couple of months to look after their daughter who was then aged 10 months. Quite an experience as it was a huge farmhouse with no electricity other than a small generator to run Max’s music system. Part of my duties was to go round lighting all the candelabra with those tiny little wax matches that you used to get in Spain. Sofas inside the inglenook fireplace (we got wet when in rained), enormous four-poster beds with 2″ thick hard mattresses in freezing cold stone bedrooms. Mucking out the Arab stallions’ stables which were located inside the house. Max and Antonia split while I was there an I came home to London. Antonia went to Ibiza and, according to a postcard I received from him the following year, Max embarked on his travels.
January 28th, 2009 at 4:06 pm
Ho avuto la fortuna di conoscere il grande Max, a Goa nell’inverno dell’ottantuno , ad Anijuna, allora viveva con la splendida Francoise, amava andare a cavallo senza sella all’ alba sulla spiaggia, era molto amico di jaques e Odil di PIero e Cristina diMIguel e Irina, al collo portava un grosso turchese . grezzo . Anche miguel andò a vivere a Borocao. Lui era il grande Max.
January 28th, 2009 at 5:24 pm
I arrived in Goa the same year. I use to envy him, his two horses. I think we became “friends” because during a dinner we start to talk about tibetan art. He gave me a gift: a small dorje of a tibetan rosary. we became friend playing paddle ball on the beach. One year he invite me to a place south of goa where he had built a immense “hut-house” in bamboo and palms leaves in a big peace of land near the sea. For the first time I saw him laughing like a kid for my nonsense and surrealistic jokes. He was totally different when he had to speak or give order to people who was working for him, his voice would became harsh. He respected me and I respected him probably because, before arriving in goa, both of us had a kind of straight life, straight job and one day both of us said: enough. But for him it was different he wanted more adventure, more things to do . he wanted to be totally different from any human beeing. I do not want to know why he kill himself. I have my own idea: he was tired . And I will miss him
January 28th, 2009 at 8:13 pm
I new Max in Goa, he was living with a beautifull french girl named Françoise, never heard of her again either, i beleive he met her in Ibiza… If his family is looking at this blog , i would like to get in touch with them…
Is Antonia spanish? Still living in Ibiza? Max was a crazy sob, as far as i am concerned…
February 6th, 2009 at 12:55 pm
Great Article. Thanks. I agree
February 13th, 2009 at 5:01 pm
I was very interested to come across this web page. I went to stay at Son Rullan in January 1969 to look after his and Antonia’s daughter Selina. I went just before she was born and Max and I went whizzing round the mountains in his mini moke to buy all the things needed before the baby and Antonia came home from hospital. Anne, I guess you had the same bedroom as I did with a large four poster and not much else. I had the baby in my room and had to dry the nappies in front of a gas fire in the room as Max didn’t want to see them hanging outside! I had to wash them by hand in the bathroom sink!
If I remember correctly the dog was called Barney and I used to love taking him for walks in the afternoons. At the time he had a horse which I think was called Carly bought from the flea market in Palma. Max used to let me lunge him sometimes.
Unfortunately I had to return to England as my father became terminally ill and the last I heard from him was a telegram asking me to come back – unfortunately I couldn’t.
February 20th, 2009 at 12:26 pm
I obviously took over your job, Angela, once you returned to the UK. Yes, I washed Selena’s nappies by hand in the bathroom and dried them indoors. As well as Barney the springer spaniel, there was also Wendy, a harlequin Great Dane, when I was there, plus two horses. I’m afraid that I crashed the mini moke down the mountain!!
Lak – Antonia Maxwell was born in Argentina and she is still a very beautiful lady living and working as an accomplished artist in Ibiza. She has a webpage – http://www.antoniamaxwell.com
February 20th, 2009 at 12:34 pm
Antonia also has photos and a blog on http://antoniamaxwell.blogspot.com/2008/07/la-artista-antonia-maxwell.html
March 3rd, 2009 at 11:14 am
Hello webmaster
I would like to share with you a link to your site
write me here preonrelt@mail.ru
March 31st, 2009 at 7:25 pm
Farokh Says :
March 31 2009 at 20.30
Hi, Angela and Anne. I am Max’s younger brother,in as much as we both had the same mother and father. You might like to know that I just visited
my dear Antonia and my darling Celina who now has a wonderful daughter called Alba who I hope will be visiting me,her uncle, who loves her dearly. I would like to thank you both for caring for Celina. I believe that everyone has the right to choose their own path through life, although one who totally abandons his child as he did, cannot justify that action. Max in my opinion was a supremely selfish and greatly talented man but a horrible human being, which he probably came to realise at the end.
LIFE IS WONDERFUL!
I HAVE NO COUNTRY! NO HOME!
NO FAMILY! I AM FREE!
THAT’S WHY I KILLED MYSELF! I am happy for those who enjoyed his superficial company. I would have been happier if he had spent as much time (or any time for that matter) with his daughter. You both seem very nice. My wife, Germaine, and I wish you health and happiness. Thanks again.
April 5th, 2009 at 10:47 am
Hi Farokh,
Thank you for your comments.
I’m so glad to hear about Celina – although I only cared for her for a short while I always think of her around her birthday as it is only two days before mine. I was wondering about her at this time this year and that is how I came upon this website. I was pleased to hear she has a lovely daughter.
Having a daughter and grandson myself I can’t understand how Max could have walked out on the most rewarding and important part of his life. Maybe he eventually did come to realize this.
Having been in Deia, it led to a lifelong love of that part of the island for me. We finally bought a second home in Port de Soller nearby three years ago and look forward to many happy family holidays there.
May 27th, 2009 at 12:33 pm
Dear Farokh
Many thanks for your kind thoughts. From what you and others have said regarding the years following his departure, I can only agree with your sentiments as to Max’s complete selfishness. Antonia was barely 20 years old when she was faced with the struggle of bringing up a child on her own and I’m delighted to hear that she made such a fantastic job of it and that she now has the joy of a grand-daughter. My daughter, who is 32, now finds herself in a similar situation as Antonia did all those years ago and I hope and pray that – with the help and support of myself and the rest of the family – she finds a measure of success equal to that of Antonia’s. Max will have missed out on some wonderful times in Celina’s life. I am sure, however, that Celina will have gained from having the love and support of such a caring uncle and aunt.
With kind regards
Anne