Thanks for the replies guys, thinking back about this I was also into the Swallows and Amazons books by Arthur Ramsone too, but Dad wouldn't let me alone on his dingy, besides, none of my friends were into that kind of thing, too busy with Showaddywaddy on the TV.
I didn't know that there was a book by Eddie McGee, I'll look out for it. My first book on survival was How to Survive by Brian Hildreth, I think he was Australian or from New Zealand and a survival instructor for them. I was lucky enough to get an original survival manual for US pilots during the war from a family friend, even had Inuit phrases in the back, just in case!
Someone mentioned that their Dad took them outdoors, we did that kind of thing as a family out into the woods, Dad would go fishing and me and my brother would get into trouble in the woods(once got the whole of my face painted with bilberry juice, which took a bit of scrubbing to get off!)
Now that I'm a dad myself I hope to get the boy interested in being outdoors, but he's only 2 at the moment. We've been out for a walk in the woods and had a campfire and so far he seems to enjoy it, we'll have to wait and see.