About James Mandeville
Survival is for everyone is my catch phrase…

I started writing books on survival five years ago, my first book "No Water No Food" was a smash hit, was rewritten as "Survival for Everyone" and is now in its third, very successful revision sold under the titles "Disasters Happen Could You Provide for Yourself!" and "Disasters Happen – Military Version." My latest book, published in paperback, is Fighter or Freezer. This book looks at why people react the way they do to disaster and helps people to know themselves better and gives solid advice on what to expect will happen to your psyche should you end up in a disaster situation. Covering every sort of disaster from the rape-victim to the earthquake survivor my book gives advice on how to get in control of your psyche and bounce back a fighter.

The focus throughout my books is purely on what it is necessary to know. The question has been asked, "Why did you publish some of your survival book on CD-ROM?" My answer to that is, to print these full colour books would make them very expensive, which would prevent more people from owning them.

Apart from the economic considerations: No one I have ever served with in the army, worked with in an NGO organisation or saw fleeing a war, sat down and read a survival manual when in an actual survival situation! In such a scenario, everyone is traumatised, frightened and low on coping mechanisms. A survival manual in a rucksack or sat on a bookcase is no substitute for carrying survival knowledge in your head and owning practical experience. If you need to carry survival knowledge around with you in a book you probably will not survive long enough to use it if you really get into a tough situation! Buy the book ― read it ― learn from it ― practice survival skills! Consider going on a bushcraft or survival course, some great courses are features on my "Survival Courses" page.

My training in survival (apart from the rigours thrown at me by life) was 23 years in the military, ten of which I spent teaching soldiers how to infiltrate, survive, fight in jungle and exfiltrate. I spent a lot of time in a lot of jungle in Belize, Brunei, Singapore and Indonesia. When I was a soldier I was sent at short notice to trouble spots all over the world. I was highly trained in combat and survival, so were the men who went with me. We did get into difficult situations and we needed to use our knowledge and training in order to survive. I also have spent many years in other terrain, notable the Amazon, the African bush and climbing in various mountain regions including the Drakensburgh Mountains and the Andes; in all these places my survival knowledge was invaluable. For four years I lived in a war-torn Mozambican village. This was a wonderful two-way learning process on survival. I was able to help the local community with my survival knowledge and I learned an incredible amount about surviving in the bush from these warm-hearted and resourceful people. The photo (right) was taken of me in the village with my two young oxen, Isaiah and Jeremiah the day before we first started using them to pull a plough. There were times when I wondered if I would survive that experience! Have you ever tried to control two powerful oxen pulling a plough? For some days they kind of went where they wanted with me dragging behind them!

My mission is to pass my survival experience on through my books. However much you think you know about survival, there is always more to learn, so you should read everything you can on the subject.

Since I began writing survival books back in 2001, the world has witnessed increasingly violent and tragic natural disasters, wars and acts of terrorism.

These events have affected families, communities, regions and countries; the list goes on and on: Devastating floods in Europe, powerful storms all over the world (most recently the Indian Ocean Tsunami disaster and other violent tropical storms in Asia and "freak" hurricanes such as Hurricane Katrina that hit New Orleans with such devastating impact).

We have witnessed armed conflict (in the Balkans, the Middle East, the former Soviet States, in Africa, Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon, and on a lesser scale in many other places around the world). Terrorism on a local and global scale often flares up in many countries. As if that is not enough, we face the threat, one day, of a Pan-endemic such as SARS or Bird flue (Avian influenza) striking communities with devastating effect. Still feel safe?

The threat of disruption to our otherwise peaceful lives may be ignored – but I personally think that is foolish. I do not want to sound like a "Prophet of Doom," I just want people to wake up to the fact that we do live in turbulent times and we cannot afford to fall into the complacency trap. There is much people can do to prepare themselves for the unexpected, both practically and by building up their survival knowledge.

The Future?
Not only do we need to be able to provide for ourselves if disaster should strike but we also need to understand that the world's water and food resources are limited and fragile. This is an age of wastefulness. Our parents, certainly our grandparents, would never waste food and water the way people do today, especially in the "First" world. What is worse, we are raising children to accept our irresponsible standards as the norm. Perhaps you think it unlikely hardship will suddenly strike in your lifetime (I hope for your sake this is so!) but can you guarantee the same for your children? I doubt it! You have a responsibility to teach them basic survival skills and educate them to be resourceful and competent so if the day comes when they are faced with short, medium or long-term shortages of water and/or food they will be better equipped to survive the situation. Your children will also teach their children, your grandchildren, and if each generation continues this, vital survival knowledge will stay alive.

James Mandeville, 2007
May God bless your day!