Product Description

Ray Mears has travelled the world discovering how native people manage to live on just what nature provides. Whats always frustrated him is not knowing how our own ancestors fed themselves and what we could learn about our own diet.

We know they were hunter-gatherers, but no-one has been able to tell what they ate day to day.  How did they find their calories, week in week out throughout the year? What were their staple foods?  Where did they get their vitamins? How did they ensure their bodies received enough variety? In this book he travels back ten thousand years to a time before farming to learn how our ancestors found, prepared and cooked their food.

This extraordinary journey reveals many new possibilities many of the same food sources are still there for us if only we know where to look. Through Ray Mears' knowledge of the countryside and the research conducted specially for this book with archaeo-botanist Gordon Hillman, we learn many new, useful and often surprising things about the amazingly rich natural larder that still surrounds us.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2972 in Books
• Published on: 2008-05-29
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 300 pages

Review
'Ray Mears is a bushman first and foremost and really can survive in any extreme environment. I can't think of a better companion in a crisis.' (Tim Lewis, GQ )

'If Ray Mears isn't a Great Living Englishman, then goodness me, who is? The man is great, and he doesn't even begin to know how great he is.' (The Times Magazine )

About the Author
Born in 1964, Ray Mears has travelled the world studying and teaching the art of survival. He has appeared extensively in perennially popular TV programmes such as Bushcraft Survival, Extreme Survival, The Real Heroes of Telemark and Wild Food. As well as his TV and writing work, Ray founded Woodlore, School of Wilderness Bushcraft, in 1983, and has been teaching his unique bushcraft skills there for the past 25 years.

Customer Reviews

Well worth the money
I would describe this book as a very good referance work, packed with details and information. It has clear photographs of the plants, and good descriptions of them and their habitats. Also, it has descriptions of how to process some of the foods to make them edible, or more apetizing. I was amazed at the ammount of work Ray and Gordon have put into this. It is a pity that it is spoiled slightly by some poor editing, otherwise I would give it a score of 5 stars.

Useful on the whole
The strength of this book is in its large and very clear photographs, which are very helpful in identifying edible plants for one's own use. It's pretty clear that the majority of the actual botanical entries are by Mr Hillman rather than Ray Mears, but obviously his is the face and name that sells. I only wish that whoever proof-read and edited the book had done a better job because there are quite a few appalling typos and mistakes.

A Bit Disapointing
Good looking with excellent photos, but a little light on detail, particularly in the UK fungus section. A bit too much historical info for me.