Book excerpt: Whether you are an avid outdoors person or would simply like some survival knowledge just in case you need it, The Complete Wilderness Training Book teaches you all the skills necessary for living off the land -- even in the most adverse conditions. Illustrated with more than 950 color photographs and illustrations, including many step-by-step sequences, The Complete Wilderness Training Book offers an unparalleled understanding of the outdoors. It contains hundreds of specific techniques for staying warm and dry, obtaining food and water, traveling and getting help, including making a foliage bed, testing plants for poison, making a compass, splinting a broken arm, and surviving a blizzard. During his 16 years in the British Army, Hugh McManners served as a paratrooper and combat-survival instructor. Here he shares with you the knowledge that has meant the difference between life and death for him on a number of occasions.