Lightweight camping - John Traynor

Practical in its focus, this guide offers detailed information and advice on getting the most out of camping light - on foot or by bike, canoe or car. It explores the many varieties of lightweight tent life and travel including all the skills required and the essential equipment. From picking a campsite in the wild to coping with bad weather, the author offers tips and tricks on tents, gear, luggage and campsites for readers of all levels of experience and inspirational anecdotes from many years of the mobile life outdoors and under canvass. Chapters cover: setting up a basecamp, camping on the move, surviving the great outdoors, choosing tents, shelters and sleeping bags, maximising home comforts and minimising environmental impact with appendices including camping with kids, buying a tent and DIY tent repairs. With all this inside knowledge to hand, camping trips are adventures just waiting to be enjoyed, whatever your age, whatever your outdoor pursuits.

Since surviving camping trips as a youngster in the valleys of South Wales, John Traynor has gone on to backpack, pedal, paddle and enjoy tent touring by car, train and bus around the UK, Europe and much further afield. From Iceland to South Africa and from Canada to South East Asia via Nepal, he has managed to thrive on his many, and varied, camping trips. He has a wealth of experience and advice to offer, through lessons learned mostly the hard way over the years, 'under canvas'.

A regular contributor to outdoor magazines, he was a founding member of the Outdoor Writers' Guild, is a life member of Friends of the Lake District and an honorary life member of the Backpackers' Club. He splits his time between Europe and southern Africa to savour a variety of climates and cultures but has a particular fondness for Scotland, Northumberland and France.