Wild Style

The last year has been all about survival. Surviving a global pandemic. Surviving the ensuing toilet paper and flour shortages. Surviving the months of isolation. Surviving waves of misinformation and idiocy. A combination of things about the entire experience have made me want to stock up on camping gear and get away from it all. In fact, a quick camping trip last summer was one of the biggest highlights of 2020 for me. And that’s where 50 Things to Do in the Wild comes in handy. Written by outdoorsy British education professional Richard Skrein, and beautifully illustrated by fellow Londoner Maria Nilsson, this great hardcover title from Pavilion (and distributed in the US by Princeton Architectural Press) has something of a classic feel to it. Its design style is strongly evocative of the illustrated knot-tying guides from my youth in the Scouts, which seemed like they hadn’t likely been updated much since the ’50s. The activities inside are divided into four main sections: Earth, Wind, Water, and Fire. While not necessarily a manual for survival, the activities do lean towards creating shelter, and finding and cooking food & water; all with as few tools as possible, sometimes creating your own tools from natural elements. I love it. There’s a lot to learn here. The short section on identifying plants is understandably specific to Great Britain and perhaps Western Europe, but other than that, this is an almost universal guide to having fun in the wild, and becoming more at home there in the process.