I'm going to show my age here...

[oldtimer]

It's interesting to read all the references to those early books on the subject. They didn't exist when i was young. Already passionate about Bushcraft,, as a newly qualified primary school teacher in the 60's, I inflicted my enthusiasm om my class and got them doing a project on personal survival. One enterprising pupil wrote to the CO of the RAF Survival School got a lovely pack of aircrew instruction booklets on survival in various scenarios.

Over the years I developed a wide ranging bibliography which included almost all of the books so far mentioned and also wrote my own handbook- but never bothered to get it published. This probably saved me the embarrassment of it being critically judged by the burgeoning, knowledgeable Bushcraft community. What a blessing YouTube didn't exist in those days or I may have laid myself open for people to cringe like I do when viewing those amateurish videos that always start, "Hi Guys!" and then go on to show someone droning on about some aspect of their limited knowledge before dropping the camera.

 

[Joonsy]

One enterprising pupil wrote to the CO of the RAF Survival School got a lovely pack of aircrew instruction booklets on survival in various scenarios.

an RAF survival instructor did a survival programme in 1961 in the ''Look At Life'' tv series. (didn't see it myself)

 

[Robson Valley]

I hope that there's some appetite to learn bushcraft from the original practicioners, the Neolithic people.
While that seems so far back in your past, it's only a couple hundred years ago in Canada.
On the edge of living memory.

Our countryside is still littered with visible remnants of their civilizations.
Pottery, arrowheads, hammerstones, tipi rings, fish weirs, bison jumps, villages of pit houses, kitchen gardens, those sorts of things.
There's been a massive resurgence in interest since maybe 1950. Particularly their vibrant art and carvings.

Fortunately, so many of the old people who were taught the old ways are still alive to mentor the beginners.
They teach from memory and by example so we've got far fewer guide books than you have found.
As such, I want to buy them all, to encourage a consumer demand for authorship.

 

[LadySmyth]

I was thinking about what/who started me down the outdoor/bushcraft road.

Well it was "Jack Hargreaves" I think I have seen everything he was in until he stopped in 1985. He had an interesting delivery. His WW2 experience was quite interesting too.

Next stepping stone is Les hiddins and bush tucker man.

Both men encouraged a boy from Luton to get outdoors and explore. Luckily I had an Uncle who was a farmer who we visited very regularly with loads of land to practice on.

They where/are my inspirations (before RM and others) who or what are yours?

Buck

I used to play in the woods when i was a kid. We'd make camps and fish etc. My dad used to speak of his hunting days and he used to fish on a boat in the sea too... I was never allowed on those trips, but I used to help him in his shed while he made leather and wooden items. He even designed an adjustable fishing weight which impressed me quite a bit... On holidays by the sea, we used to forage along the shore for winkles and muscles etc. They were, and still are fond memories.

After raising my children, i eventually had the time to watch a bit of telly, i just loved to watch any Ray Mears progs, so much i usually buy his vids... Now that we have you tube too, I'm kinda spoiled for choice. I feel like a Jack(ie) of all trades and master of none. I'm not complaining tho 🐞

I hope that there's some appetite to learn bushcraft from the original practicioners, the Neolithic people.
While that seems so far back in your past, it's only a couple hundred years ago in Canada.
On the edge of living memory.

Our countryside is still littered with visible remnants of their civilizations.
Pottery, arrowheads, hammerstones, tipi rings, fish weirs, bison jumps, villages of pit houses, kitchen gardens, those sorts of things.
There's been a massive resurgence in interest since maybe 1950. Particularly their vibrant art and carvings.

Fortunately, so many of the old people who were taught the old ways are still alive to mentor the beginners.
They teach from memory and by example so we've got far fewer guide books than you have found.
As such, I want to buy them all, to encourage a consumer demand for authorship.

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[LadySmyth]

there was a program in the 1970s called ''Living in the Past'', see video below, didn't have telly in early years (nor my later years now) but the first survival programms i saw was about nature and wildlife and called Survival by Colin Willock. Inspiration mostly come from the contrast i saw between the beautiful worcestershire countryside and slag heaps, open tips, and rat infested river in the Black Country of old during my childhood.

[video=youtube;qt5ir-viCzk]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qt5ir-viCzk[/video]

That looks interesting... Thanks Joonsy 👍 Going to watch that later.

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[Disco1]

We must be about the same age because I watched Jack Hargreaves as well. I was fortunate to meet him once he was just same in real life as he was on the T.V. laid back and had a story for every thing.

 

[woodspirits]

I think my first intro to this was the original Mark twain film Tom Sawyer and Huck Fin I was around 8 ish. and I read the book about the same age too. Swiss family Robinson, Crusoe, famous five etc all the same ilk all outdoor adventure. So ask me again why I want to build a shelter at North Wood!

 

[Alan 13~7]

Like Shindig & Riven for me too it was also... Bullet which was my inspiration, as stated earlier it was a comic book published weekly in the UK during the 1970s. The main character was a moustached, multi-talented, highly trained secret agent, aptly named Fireball.

The survival guide came as a free gift with the 2nd issue of Bullet

Indelibly imprintid on my brain as I played survival in my parents back garden as a kid of the 70's wish I still had all the info.....

 

[Riven]

Thanks for that Alan takes me right back to being a nine year old again. Wasn't it a spin off from Warlord magazine?

 

[shindig]

Like Shindig & Riven for me too it was also... Bullet which was my inspiration, as stated earlier it was a comic book published weekly in the UK during the 1970s. The main character was a moustached, multi-talented, highly trained secret agent, aptly named Fireball.

The survival guide came as a free gift with the 2nd issue of Bullet

Indelibly imprintid on my brain as I played survival in my parents back garden as a kid of the 70's wish I still had all the info.....

Brilliant. I remember practising these skills in the local woods,


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[bigbear]

Oh yes, I was a Warlord reader ! Happy days, at and the Beano, I saw no contradiction then and still do not.

 

[Riven]

A Fireball membership pack has just sold on ebay for £205. Sad to say mine went years ago along with my Warlord and Dennis the menace membership.
Darn.

 

[backpacker]

Hi Buck,

I first got the Bushcraft bug when watching Jack Hargreaves and I have just started collecting the DVD's and it is really great to look how things were done back in the day and of course Les Hiddens 'The Bush Tucker Man' he was really interesting to watch! Liked the Hat!!! after watching Ray Mears on tracks I started getting even more interested in Bushcraft and went out and bought his first book which has been updated since then and now has a different cover on the book and later buying 'No Need To Die' by Eddie McGee which was also a very good informative book.

As time went by I joined the forces and ended up on a Survival Course which was run by John Lofty Wiseman that was an experience in it's self and being trained in more Survival techniques than Bushcraft even though they run well side by side and since leaving I have been interested ever since and practicing as and when I can and now I'm teaching my two Sons what I know and encouraging them to enjoy the great outdoors! so far they love getting out there and learning all the techniques of how to live off the land and hopefully it will continue.

Dave

 

[ASHVALE1988]

There was a T.V series `Stay Alive with Eddie Mcgee` in the late 1970s made by Yorkshire Television , I have it ..... some where on V.H.S tape used to sit and watch it totally mesmerized but the books by John Blashford Snell

Major John Blashford -Snell one of Britain's greatest post war explorers an absolute hero of mine as a kid back in the early 1980s.
He was the only guy that seemed to be out there in the jungle exploring he was an over weight slightly snobby English man in his ex army green shorts and very old style pith helmet. there is a tv clip from long ago of him stood on the banks of the Zambezi ?river organizing a bridge build , he is been interviewed by the press
" We shall approach this in a calm disciplined methodical way because we are BRITISH an this is what were here to do -an the natives will be bloody grateful !"
So SO British his books are on eBay and they are a great read a little dated perhaps but from a long past time when exploration was still a respected undertaking .Has the man credited with inventing the sport of white water rafting by accident of course he was using flat bottom barges stuffed full of football bladders to float his expedition across a raging river another quote of his is always have plenty of fire power in case u need to fight your way out !.
He worked tirelessly fund raising bullying and badgering companies for sponsorship to get kids from poorer back grounds on exploration events such as the massive Operation Drake




22

 

[Bootstrap Bob]

There was a T.V series `Stay Alive with Eddie Mcgee` in the late 1970s made by Yorkshire Television , I have it ..... some where on V.H.S tape used to sit and watch it totally mesmerized

That was my first recollection of any bushcraft or "living off the land" at the age of 5 or 6 years old. Watched them on a tiny black and white TV but that didn't matter it got me hooked.

 

[Fadcode]

My inspiration was Desperate Dan in the Dandy, he had me wandering all over the place looking for a Cow Pie, still looking, found loads of Cow Pats, but never a Cow Pie.

 

[forrestdweller]

no bushcraft/ survival related books(or anything on tv) were available when i grew up except "robinson crusoe", a story about a group of kids "locked" for several weeks in a caǹon (after a snowstorm blocks the only exit) and a book about stone age hunters (the latter two most likely forgotten these days and never translated into english....) which were my early inspirations. in the early 1990ties "Malcolm Douglas" was shown in tv ( which became a highlight of my week) and step by step i acquired the books of Ruediger Nehberg -- i had the great fortune to meet both of them in 2002.

 

[henchy3rd]

Mine was from a book called The boys guide to do just about anything. Think it was from the 50s.

 

[John Fenna]

Robinson Crusoe (book and Canadian TV series) Swiss Family Robinson, Coral Island and one of the early Enid Blyton books where a bunch of kids run off from a Cruel Stepmother to an island in a lake, where they build a living willow hut....
TV was restricted - if it was daylight I was expected to be outside - even if it was raining (you are not made of sugar - you will not melt) so TV was winter only! I saw some Jack H stuff but not much
I spent loads of time in the fields and woods as a child and always had a knife of some sort on me - not things many kids do these days it would seem...

 

[ANDGRIN]

I grew up outdoors with my parents being keen walkers, I first climbed Cadair Idris at the age of eight. Playing in local woods and along the riverbank with my friends. I learned hedge laying on my uncles farm as a teenager and picked up some knowledge of wildlife.
I had a great love of history, archaeology and anthropology gained from a National Geographic magazine subscription through the sixties and seventies.
The first book I got was Richard Graves “Bushcraft” around 1977, this was largely centred on jungle survival for downed aircrew. Soon after came Eddie McGee books and TV and Les Hiddens Bush Tucker man on TV.
I then spent many years mountaineering and long distance walking and only returning to bushcraft when I found the books of Nessmuk and Kephart just as Ray Mears started to appear on TV.
And