''The SAS Survival Handbook'' is a survival guide by

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

author An author is the writer of a book, article, play, mostly written work. A broader definition of the word "author" states: "''An author is "the person who originated or gave existence to anything" and whose authorship determines responsibility f ...

and professional soldier,

John Wiseman John "Lofty" Wiseman is a British author, survival consultant and television presenter. He is a former member of the Special Air Service (SAS), the British special forces unit. Life and works In 1959, at the age of eighteen, Wiseman became ...

, first published by Williams Collins in 1986. Second, revised edition came out in 2009. A digital app for smartphones based on the book is also available. The book spans over 11 sections, and an introduction and postscript, detailing how to survive in dangerous surroundings.

Overview

With this book, John Wiseman seeks to provide the reader with the knowledge to survive any wilderness survival or disaster situation. It details basic survival skills, like how to build a fire, to more complex and situation-specific skills, like how to take shelter while indoors during an earthquake.

Publication

A third, expanded version of the book was published in 2014. A section on "Urban Survival" was added for this edition.

Reception

The book is a popular choice among

survivalists Survivalism is a social movement of individuals or groups (called survivalists or preppers) who proactively prepare for emergencies, such as natural disasters, as well as other disasters causing disruption to social order (that is, civil disord ...

and preppers.

Sections

#Essentials: The basics of what you need to do to prepare for a journey and how to collect

salt Salt is a mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride (NaCl), a chemical compound belonging to the larger class of salts; salt in the form of a natural crystalline mineral is known as rock salt or halite. Salt is present in vast quantitie ...

and

water Water (chemical formula ) is an inorganic, transparent, tasteless, odorless, and nearly colorless chemical substance, which is the main constituent of Earth's hydrosphere and the fluids of all known living organisms (in which it acts as a ...

. #Strategy: How to avoid getting yourself into a disaster situation. #Climate & Terrain: How to survive in all manner of different environments from

polar regions The polar regions, also called the frigid zones or polar zones, of Earth are the regions of the planet that surround its geographical poles (the North and South Poles), lying within the polar circles. These high latitudes are dominated by float ...

to arid regions. #Food: How to track and kill

animals Animals are multicellular, eukaryotic organisms in the biological kingdom Animalia. With few exceptions, animals consume organic material, breathe oxygen, are able to move, can reproduce sexually, and go through an ontogenetic stage in ...

and prepare them to eat. #Camp Craft: How to set up campsites and tie knots and make

fires Fire is the rapid oxidation of a material (the fuel) in the exothermic chemical process of combustion, releasing heat, light, and various reaction products. At a certain point in the combustion reaction, called the ignition point, flames are pr ...

correctly and quickly. #Reading the Signs: The details of navigation by

star A star is an astronomical object comprising a luminous spheroid of plasma (physics), plasma held together by its gravity. The List of nearest stars and brown dwarfs, nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked ...

s and by the sun. #On the Move: How to cross dangerous areas relatively safely with minimal loss. #Health: Learning

first aid First aid is the first and immediate assistance given to any person with either a minor or serious illness or injury, with care provided to preserve life, prevent the condition from worsening, or to promote recovery. It includes initial in ...

priorities and procedures, such as the

Heimlich manoeuvre Abdominal thrusts, also known as the Heimlich maneuver or Heimlich manoeuvre, is a first aid procedure used to treat upper airway obstructions (or choking) by foreign objects. American doctor Henry Heimlich is often credited for its creation. P ...

and others and a small

encyclopedia An encyclopedia (American English) or encyclopædia (British English) is a reference work or compendium providing summaries of knowledge either general or special to a particular field or discipline. Encyclopedias are divided into articles ...

of medicinal and

poisonous plants Plants that produce toxins are referred to as poisonous plants. Plants that cause irritation on contact are also described as "poisonous". The toxins in poisonous plants affect herbivores, and deter them from consuming the plants. Plants cannot ...

and dangerous or

poisonous animals The following is a list of poisonous animals, which are animals that passively deliver toxins (called poison) to their victims upon contact such as through inhalation, absorption through the skin, or after being ingested. They are often distingu ...

. #Survival at Sea: How to survive afloat in the open water. #Rescue: How to get oneself rescued and signalling for help (includes tutorial for

Morse code Morse code is a method used in telecommunication to encode text characters as standardized sequences of two different signal durations, called ''dots'' and ''dashes'', or ''dits'' and ''dahs''. Morse code is named after Samuel Morse, one of ...

). #Disasters: How to survive major disasters, such as

flood A flood is an overflow of water ( or rarely other fluids) that submerges land that is usually dry. In the sense of "flowing water", the word may also be applied to the inflow of the tide. Floods are an area of study of the discipline hydrol ...

avalanche An avalanche is a rapid flow of snow down a slope, such as a hill or mountain. Avalanches can be set off spontaneously, by such factors as increased precipitation or snowpack weakening, or by external means such as humans, animals, and earth ...

hurricane A tropical cyclone is a rapidly rotating storm system characterized by a low-pressure center, a closed low-level atmospheric circulation, strong winds, and a spiral arrangement of thunderstorms that produce heavy rain and squalls. Depend ...

tornado A tornado is a violently rotating column of air that is in contact with both the surface of the Earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud. It is often referred to as a twister, whirlwind or cyclone, altho ...

es,

volcano A volcano is a rupture in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface. On Earth, volcanoes are most often found where tectonic plates are ...

es,

earthquake An earthquake (also known as a quake, tremor or temblor) is the shaking of the surface of the Earth resulting from a sudden release of energy in the Earth's lithosphere that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes can range in intensity, from ...

s and nuclear aftermaths.

References

External links