How to explore the secret world of our forests

British Woodland

Nobody sees and understands woodland better than Ray Mears. 
 
With deep natural history knowledge and practical woodcraft skills, gained over a lifetime of learning from the world's last remaining indigenous peoples, Ray offers a different way to experience our wooded landscapes. He challenges the old concepts. He looks to our ancestors and shows how man's hand in shaping woodland is critical. We are not separate from nature, we just need to ensure that our interactions have a positive impact. 
 
With the emphasis on interaction, British Woodland is structured by usage. We learn that sycamore and clematis are among the best woods for burning, pine and oak help us navigate, and hawthorn and beech have edible leaves. Rope can be made from willow, utensils and tools from hazel, and historically, weapons were made from yew and wych elm. 
 
With Ray as our guide, encouraging this sense of connection to individual trees, our appreciation of wooded landscapes will change. We can learn how to live inclusively in nature, for our own wellbeing and enjoyment, and also for the future of our planet.

Ray Mears has become recognised throughout the world as an authority on the subject of bushcraft and survival. TV series including Ray Mears' Bushcraft, Ray Mears' World of Survival, Extreme Survival and Ray Mears goes Walkabout have made him a household name over the past two decades, but he has spent his whole life learning these skills, and founded Woodlore School of Wilderness Bushcraft over 35 years ago. He lives in Sussex with his family.

Nobody sees and understands woodland better than Ray Mears. 
 
With deep natural history knowledge and practical woodcraft skills, gained over a lifetime of learning from the world's last remaining indigenous peoples, Ray offers a different way to experience our wooded landscapes. He challenges the old concepts. He looks to our ancestors and shows how man's hand in shaping woodland is critical. We are not separate from nature, we just need to ensure that our interactions have a positive impact. 
 
With the emphasis on interaction, British Woodland is structured by usage. We learn that sycamore and clematis are among the best woods for burning, pine and oak help us navigate, and hawthorn and beech have edible leaves. Rope can be made from willow, utensils and tools from hazel, and historically, weapons were made from yew and wych elm. 
 
With Ray as our guide, encouraging this sense of connection to individual trees, our appreciation of wooded landscapes will change. We can learn how to live inclusively in nature, for our own wellbeing and enjoyment, and also for the future of our planet.

How to reconnect with the wild

We Are Nature

A journey of discovery through our natural world. 
 
Bushcraft and survival legend Ray Mears takes us on his own lifetime's journey through the natural world, into the British countryside and across continents, and shows us how to tune our senses, enhance our experience of nature, and understand our place within it. 
 
Guiding us through practical fieldcraft tips, Ray brings us up close with creatures we share our planet with, and reveals how we can learn from them, from the stealth of the leopard to the patience and stillness of the crocodile, and even the colour-changing camouflage of the octopus. 
 
With Ray as your companion, you will unlock the hidden secrets of the wild and begin to see, instead of merely look.

A Guide to the Materials in the Wild and How To Use them for Food, Warmth, Shelter and Navigation

Ray Mears Outdoor Survival Handbook

A reissue of the popular classic survival guide that includes Ray Mears' in-depth knowledge of life outdoors.

Let Ray Mears, the grand master of bushcraft, teach you everything you need to know about how to survive outdoors. Ray's in-depth knowledge, and years of practical experience will equip you with the know-how you need to make the most of the great outdoors and experience it to the full. 
 
'I wanted a book on basic survival and bushcraft relevant to UK and this hit the spot' -- ***** Reader review 
'This is a permanent resident in my rucksack and I read it over and over' -- ***** Reader review 
'Great book by the grand master of bushcraft' -- ***** Reader review 
'What can you say - it's Ray Mears and he's brilliant. Like all his stuff, very good.' -- ***** Reader review 
'Very clear, informative and easy to understand' -- ***** Reader review 
'Ruddy good read! The man knows his stuff!' -- ***** Reader review 
*************************************************************************************************** 
Ray Mears' Outdoor Survival Handbook is a book of discovery, explaining the everyday skills you need to live in and enjoy the natural world. 
 
Season by season, this unique guide, with line illustrations, describes the resources and materials available in the wild and how to use them. Whether you want to spend a day, a week or a month out of doors, Ray Mears' Outdoor Survival Handbook will help you enjoy it to the full. 
 
Learn how to identify animal tracks, make a simple camp bed and shelter out of natural materials, pick edible fungi, smoke meat and fish, transport a fire and weave baskets, and many other essential skills... 
 
Packed with practical tips, insights into nature and respect for traditional knowledge, this is a book for families, groups and individual hikers and climbers - for everyone who enjoys outdoor life.

Ray Mears

How to find anything in the wild

'This book reawakens something vital – a way of slowing down and truly seeing the world around you. It is not merely a manual, it is the authentic voice of experience and a mentor in print.' Lieutenant Colonel Gaz Veacock MBA, Royal Marines 
 
Ray Mears has accumulated his tracking skills over 35 years of practice in the field all across the world, from tracking the snow leopard in China to tracing dinosaurs on the south coast of England. Although he's known as a TV presenter, he also works in a confidential capacity as a consultant to the police and other agencies. Here, he draws deeply from every avenue of an extraordinary life's work, and passes on all that hard-earned expertise for the first time. 
 
Illustrated throughout and including clear instructions interlaced with Ray's own inspiring first-hand experiences, this book offers you a thrilling self-education in the art of tracking. Part 1, Basic Tracking, will give you the tools to identify tracks. In Part 2, Intermediate Tracking, you will learn how to follow sign left behind and in Part 3, Operational Tracking, you'll start to piece together a fascinating wider picture of the specific circumstances around trails. 
 
Outdoor Tracking Handbook is the only authoritative but accessible and practical manual of its kind. Here you have not only a go-to reference for professionals, from naturalists to police and military operatives, but also an essential guide for enthusiasts who want to discover the outdoors in a new way, and read the secret stories of animals and birds in the tracks they leave behind.

Ray Mears

Books by Ray Mears

Follow penguin

Follow ladybird

Follow puffin

Sign up to the Penguin newsletter