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Call of the Wild [Paperback]

Guy Grieve
4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (34 customer reviews)
RRP: £9.99
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Book Description

8 Mar 2007 0340898259 978-0340898253
Guy Grieve's life was going nowhere - trapped in a job he hated, commuting 2,000 miles a month and up to his neck in debt. But he dreamed of escaping it all to live alone in one of the wildest, most remote places on earth - Alaska.

And just when he'd given up hope, the dream came true. Suddenly Guy was thrown into one of the harshest environments in the world, miles from the nearest human being and armed with only the most basic equipment. And he soon found - whether building a log cabin from scratch, hunting, ice fishing or of course dodging bears in the buff - that life in the wilderness was anything but easy...

Part Ray Mears, part Bill Bryson, CALL OF THE WILD is the gripping story of how a mild-mannered commuter struggled with the elements - and himself - and eventually learned the ways of the wild.

Frequently Bought Together

Call of the Wild + One Man's Wilderness: An Alaskan Odyssey + The Good Life Gets Better: Panning for Gold
Price For All Three: £25.44

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Product details

  • Paperback: 400 pages
  • Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton (8 Mar 2007)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0340898259
  • ISBN-13: 978-0340898253
  • Product Dimensions: 2.5 x 12.7 x 19.7 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (34 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 81,274 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Product Description

Review

'Guy Grieve jacked in his desk job to spend a year alone in the Alaskan wilderness. With only moose, bears and wolves for company, he survived freezing temperatures, built a log cabin, learned to hunt and handle a dog team and had several brushes with death.' (Metro)

'The book captures Grieve's maverick adventure, and has an energy and pace to it, a compelling, rushing quality, like a dog sled chasing through the snowscape . . . also has a real flavour of the frontier, told by a man who shoots a hole in his roof for a chimney with his shotgun, and puts a recipe for beaver ribs and pea soup in the end notes. CALL OF THE WILD may be the perfect present to give your dreamy spouse for Christmas, but you risk him stealing out of the house at 2am with his snowshoes on. One awaits his next adventure with anticipation.' (Scotsman)

'Hilarious' (Daily Mail)

'A wild adventure' (Independent)

About the Author

Guy Grieve gave up his job in sales and marketing to spend a year alone in the Alaskan wilderness. He has written for the Scotsman and he currently lives on the Isle of Mull with his wife and two sons.

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
18 of 18 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Relaxing but Gripping 26 Aug 2006
By COLSEE VINE™ VOICE
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
After reading part of the story in a newspaper I knew I had to get a copy as soon as it came out.

It tells the tale of one mans dream to get away from mundane life and do something wild and dangerous. He could have went down into any club late at night I suppose, but he chose a safer place.

ALASKA!

Once you have got your head round the fact that he left his wife and two kids behind off he sets after having made contact with an Alaskan family. Without wishing to give too much of the story away, he basically has to build a cabin on his own, surrounded by bears, wolves and little or no contact with anyone.

If he injured himself with a chainsaw or a simple cut he had to deal with it himself. As becomes clear, many people die this way, alone and very vulnerable.

Along with a reluctant partner........Fuzzy the dog, the book really does draw you in with every page. You feel like you know the author personaly by the end of it.

Men or women will love this book, I would reccomend it to the casual or avid reader and anyone thinking there own life is run of the mill. This will probably bring you straight back to reality.

I will be looking for other books of this type thats for sure!
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16 of 16 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars An Incredible Journey 30 May 2007
Format:Paperback
A superb book, an incredibly well written, honest, often hilarious, sometimes emotional account...I couldn't put it down!
Guy Grieve's journey into the Alaskan interior strips away all the romantic notions of wilderness living. His experience is one of this painful realisation tempered by the real drive to survive in one of the worlds harshest environments. Grieve's stamina and determination is admirable, sharing his internal struggle to come to terms with his circumstances with profound honesty and humility. Battling freezing conditions, moose, bears, part feral sled dogs and profound homesickness, Grieve carves out a life for himself that most of us only romantically dream about from the comfort of our armchairs. We may never have the courage to follow that dream but Grieve did and it makes one hell of a story.
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22 of 23 people found the following review helpful
2.0 out of 5 stars Not what it says on the tin! 12 Feb 2008
Format:Paperback
I was disappointed with this. Not because of the fact that he abandoned his wife and family or that he had loads of help building his cabin, but because of the title and the contradicting facts.

The author tries his best to build a sense of wilderness and fear - at one point suggesting that his food is running low and he faces starvation, when all the while he has a sat phone and laptop and is continually calling the local village and e-mailing his wife! How can he possible starve when he has that level of contact?

It might be bad storytelling, but he also gives the impression that people are popping in by plane, boat and skidoo all of the time! He even is given a quad bike by some friendly locals to use around camp. He goes back to the village for seemingly long spells of time and I simply never got the impression that he was experiencing the real 'wild'.

I also wondered why if, Don, Charlie, et al are so much like family to him why are there no photos. The conclusion I came to is that he is indeed self centred.

My conclusion after reading this book that it is the longest CV in history - he went not to experience the wild, but the try and get himself known and thereby a new career. Guess what - a TV series followed!!

If you want a true story of winter survival and isolation then read North to the Night by Alvah Simon.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Couldn't put it down!! 14 May 2007
Format:Paperback
I bought this book for my father-in-law for Christmas - he's got a thing for anything Alaskan. He lent it to me last week and I finished it in no time flat. It was a great adventure! You could really see the characters as described! There were sections of the book I got really choked up and I was really sad when I was done with it! Makes me want to email the author and ask loads of questions! Oh and I too miss Fluffy!!
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars True Alaska! 21 Feb 2007
Format:Hardcover
Fascinating! I sat not a hundred miles from where Guy wrote the book and couldn't put it down. I am in a cabin watching the northern lights on the Yukon river and can empathize with feeling so small in the wilderness. Guy is a great read and a laugh to boot. It's hard to imagine the courage it took to come from Scotland to what we call the "boonies". I read it in one night, althought you have to consider our night are a little longer here in Alaska! Cheers Guy, you are welcome back any day.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars A fish out of water 29 Oct 2006
By Icarus
Format:Hardcover
A warming tale of one mans thirst for adventure and his attempt to free himself from the schackles of the modern mundane lifestyle of an innercity office worker. What is apparent from the off is that Guy has no real concept of the enormity of the task at hand and the dangers that are associated with the wilderness of remote Alaska but still through effort and persaverance has manages to undertake this once in a lifetime journey.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars brilliant reading. 30 Dec 2007
Format:Paperback
This was one of the best books i've read in a long time. Guy describes his whole adventure with an honest and thought provoking style. I may never get a chance to do what Grieve did, but after reading this book, i felt i was there with him.
I firmly disagree with some reviewers points about the morals of such a trip and his hunting and trapping techniques. He wasn't any kind of macho idiot out to shoot as many trophy animals as possible, indeed he passed up any number of occasions to do so. He shot and trapped to survive, an idea i find much more palatable than our western techniques of factory farming and wastage.
He travelled with a sense of humility and respect for the wilderness and the people he encountered. Not only did he survive, i dare say he is a better person for it.
Fuzzy rules!
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
1.0 out of 5 stars Despicable attempt to manufacture a career at his children's expense
I had stop stop reading this book halfway through. Let's look at what this "man" did. Firstly he lives Scotland, one of the most beautiful, wild and adventure filled countries on... Read more
Published 6 months ago by nep1363
5.0 out of 5 stars Wild Call
I really liked this book and recommend it to .... <thinks> ..... yes, pretty much everyone. It is thought provoking and challenging on so many subjects:
- Why did he do... Read more
Published 18 months ago by Duncan R
5.0 out of 5 stars THE BEST .
I have never got into a book as much as this ,you really feel as though you are
with him through all the highs and low's. Read more
Published 19 months ago by itsclarky
4.0 out of 5 stars The perfect escape
This is a book that falls into the category - unputdownable, its well written, absorbing, interesting and speaks to that restless part in all of us, well nearly all of us, the part... Read more
Published on 18 Mar 2011 by S. Fitzsimmons
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent read
Excellent read just about sums it up. I found the book gripping throughout and well written. Hard as is might be to imagine the hardships encountered by someone living in an... Read more
Published on 5 Jan 2011 by Daf
4.0 out of 5 stars Really enjoyable
'Call of the Wild' is an entertaining, engaging and thought-provoking read. There are some hilarious passages in the book, and some pretty intimidating anecdotes about Grieve's... Read more
Published on 20 Aug 2010 by Alex W
4.0 out of 5 stars Never chat about 'beaver' with an Alaskan ....
A really good read, with enough action in it to keep me turning pages into the wee small hours.

Like a few others, I did have some reservations about his reasons for... Read more
Published on 21 Sep 2009 by Juno
5.0 out of 5 stars A Compelling Adventure of a Man and his Dog
Guy Grieve writes with honest sensitivity. With the support of his wife and friends he does something that at one time or another many of us have thought of or would like to do at... Read more
Published on 9 April 2009 by Roger Barfoot
5.0 out of 5 stars Guy's call of the wild
Totally fantastic, and a real pleasure to read. It was heart warming and well written FACTUAL brilliance, of an ordinary mans extraordinary journey in the freezing Iceland's of the... Read more
Published on 30 Sep 2008 by Andrew Price
5.0 out of 5 stars Absolutely Fantastic
IF you want to be transported to another place for a while, then this is the book for you absolutely fantastic, The author is great at telling this story not only this but he even... Read more
Published on 27 Aug 2008 by Mr. G. J. Stenhouse
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