Help please?

[Mortblanc]

Again, keep in mind that Dave Canterbury operates out of the eastern woodlands of Ohio primarily. It is a niche that covers a lot of the U.S. but might not be applicable to the UK outside the Scottish Highlands. Some of his woodcraft skills are transferable to other areas, but our eastern woods are a Middle Earth all to themselves. He also has access to about half a million acres of pristine National Forest to operate from.

Dave is still recovering from being fired from his TV gig for padding his resume. He was not Special Forces, survival trained or even in a combat unit. He was a clerk-typist for a HQ unit in Korea and the AC unit breaking was a bad day for him.

Cody Lundin was also fired from his Dual Survival role when it became apparent even to the TV producers, that he was completely bonkers and going barefoot in the arctic was endangering not only his life but the lives of the people that would have to rescue him. He was cut lose for disagreements over health and safety issues in a situation where the employer was concerned over Cody's health and safety! Cody feels that clothing and footwear are "optional" at -30.

He is also a desert specialist so much of his expertise is useless in anything but that dry climate zone. On the TV show any time they left the arid regions Cody became dead weight unless they needed a fire started.

So you can see that our most famous survival instructors have a touch of insanity running through their veins. It seems to have always been that way. In the early days of the genre we had famous writers like Nesmuck and Kephart, who everyone idolized. Only we found that Nesmuck had abandoned his family to run the woods and normally only did day hikes from one hotel to another, and Kephart was a raging alcoholic who finally wrapped his Tin Lizzy around a tree on a mountain road.

Ray Mears might be just as crazy as Cody and Dave, but it does not show. I know he gets his facts and speculations jumbled with myth on occasion but I can forgive that to a large extent, it is typical for non-historians to do so.

I would stick with Ray Mears for your UK situation.