by Bear Grylls
Hyperion
In shops now

How can you not like Bear Grylls?  The guy attacks the toughest uninhabited spots on the planet like MacGyver escaping the bad guys.  And he does it all while wearing cool duds (which later get sprayed with things like Zebra blood) and just being a pretty charming fellow.  His “survivor gear” on BearGrylls.com in the gift shoppe - things like t-shirts and tops - go for around £40 if you’re interested… In his new book, he gives readers a how-to survive manual for all the places that 98% of us will never go - mostly because we are far more comfortable watching his programme from the comfort of our home on the widescreen or pawing through the pages of “Born Survivor” at the local Borders.  If, however, we did decide to make a grand adventure to one of his territories and schlep his hardback book with us, there’s some good stuff.  Aside from the photos of Bear nibbling on not-so-tiny woodland creatures while wearing a button-down shirt, there’s some how-to charts for easy reference.  We learn how to build a fire, checking on fluid loss and pulse rate, and, obviously, how to climb out of a crevasse.  Just get one of those cookbook holders to prop this up as you consult the diagrams and climb out of the alligator’s mouth.

But seriously folks, we love Bear.  We love his DVDs and clothes and books, no matter how impractical and froo-froo they may be in comparison to his inherent dirty boy-ness.