The Book of the Bivvy

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Review ------ Winner: Outdoor Writer's Guild Awards for Excellence: Best Outdoor Book 2001Quirky. Entertaining. Funny. Heart warming. Very well researched and stunningly presented. (OWG Award judges)Thank you for writing The Book of the Bivvy. I bivvied out on Friday night near Capel Curig, alone in an ex-British Army bivvy bag bought for GBP12 from an army surplus store. Even though it was August Bank Holiday I saw no-one between 6pm Friday and 10:30am on Saturday and had no trouble finding accommodation. I hope to do this often - my only regret is not trying it sooner (Anthony Walmsley, via email)This book by a very well respected outdoors' author, is both a joy and an inspiration, sure to make you want to take off and seek out the wild places, ten-less at that! At least those of us who enjoy camping outwith just a bivvy bag have found a guide to the hobby that we can recommend to beginners.Ronald Turnbull's book is a gallimaufry of good things; full of sound advice, such as choosing a bivvy bag - from basic polybag to state-of-the-art expensive shelter, what to do if it rains, long-distance bivvying, all related in a humorous and informative style - making this an ideal bedside book even if you just read it in the comfort of your home...Ten out of ten, Mr Turnbull, but please come and bivvy on Dartmoor...Rating *****(John Bainbridge, Dartmoor News Sept/Oct 2002)'Turnbull is ultimately worth reading, not just because of the clever quirkiness of his thoughts and phrases but because his night yomps and his high bivvies and his off-beat, off-beaten-track jaunts show that he retains that most basic of outdoor-writer essentials: a simple love of being out there, somewhere, on the surface of the planet.(The Angry Corrie, 1999)' Synopsis -------- Just where are the half a million bivvybags sold in Britain over recent years? Probably waiting for Ronald Turnbull to show the nervous virgin users the way forward. Ronald's informed, humorous, instructive, wry look at the world of the bivouac is certainly the first, and perhaps the last, word on this unexplored territory. The book is half-and-half mix of how to do it and why to do it (or how not to do it and why not to do it). Accounts of bivvybag nights and expeditions, both nice and nasty, alternate with practical chapters about the technicalities of the breathable membrane, how little kit you really can get away with and the secrets of lightweight long distance. The book closes with a selection of bivvybag expeditions to initiate the unwary into the secrets.The new edition includes updated information on manufacturers and suppliers, along with some new colour photos to inspire the reader to find a remote hill top, roll out their bag and watch the sunset. One grateful reader writes "Thank you for writing the book of the bivvy. I bivvied out near Capel Curig, alone in my ex-British army bivvy bag...even though it was August Bank holiday I saw no-one between 6pm Friday and 10.3 0am on Saturday, and had no trouble finding accommodation. I hope to do this often - my only regret is not trying it sooner."