Joe O'Leary, a successful survival skills instructor, explains the fundamental techniques required in a genuine 'wilderness survival situation' - while at the same time showing you how to enhance any out-of-doors experience, from a walk in the country to an ambitious camping expedition.

Most types of shelter, animal trap and fire-lighting technique are variations on a theme. Joe keeps it simple and describes in straightforward steps what to do to make yourself safe and comfortable: how to build a shelter that will really keep you warm, set a trap that will really catch food, identify plants that will really feed and nourish you and build a fire that will really light in all weathers.

Rather than trying to cover every eventuality, he concentrates on techniques that can be applied successfully in most environments: it's better to know a limited number of skills thoroughly than a whole host of different variations specific to particular kinds of terrain.

Wilderness survival and bushcraft are thoroughly aspirational - even to incurable stay-at-homes. This book encourages the values of improvisation and self-reliance in extreme situations - a form of escapism enjoyed by most viewers of survival TV programmes.