Customer Reviews

Living Wild: The Ultimate Guide to Scouting and Fieldcraft

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Bear Grylls does not have the most sterling of reputations among knowledgable wilderness survival practitioners due to his well known misrepresentions of survival skills on TV. Thus, I pretty much expected the same from this book. It starts out with the announcement that Mr. Grylls has been named the Chief Scout of the United Kingdom Scout movement. Being an American Eagle Scout myself, this carried a certain amount of weight with me. I also read that he intends this book to be a wilderness adventure guide for teenaged British Scouts. As I read through the chapters, I was surprised to find that this book contains none of the ill-advised spectacular ratings-driven stunts that infest his TV shows. Nowhere does he suggest anyone should always jump naked into every icy body of water they encounter, or bite into living spiders and grubs so that guts shoot out, or drink their own urine, or any of the other assorted asinine stunts he does on TV. Instead, I found well thought out guides to gear selection and use, navigation, fire starting and other essential skills written for the teenage beginner but still useful for anyone just starting out to learn about hiking, camping, and backpacking. I finished the book with quite a different attitude than when I began. I got the impression that Mr. Grylls took his new responsibility as a role model for British Scouts very seriously and wrote a guidebook devoid of the dangerous nonsense he is known for. While not the most complete or well written book on living in the wild places I've ever read, it is a basic guide well suited to beginning outdoors people. I would recommend it to anyone looking for such a book.

I got this for my husband for his birthday, he's a boy scout leader and at the moment Bear is the Chief Scout, the book is great! Lots of info as well as fun things to learn or just read :) Very happy!

Bear:

Thanks for taking on the task of being Chief Scout; very proud to have you. As an American Eagle Scout (1975), I have made scouting a major part of my life and use the skills learned to be better person, husband and father. Anyway, back to the topic of your book review.....excellent text, layout and paper quality for holding up in the field. I couldn't wait to read it. When I entered scouting in 1968, buying my first scout handbook was a major event (The book I have put away and cherish). Your book is a standout in that it lets one know the really important survival "stuff" without all the rules and decorum. I particularly enjoyed the orienteering chapter and like to keep up with my skills. Kudos to a great book.