The Camper's Handbook

Camping as a recreational activity entered into popular society over 100 years ago. It is widely accepted that Thomas Hiram Holding was one of the first proponents of the activity, which is gaining in popularity every year and will continue to do so, through the effects of the current economic climate. There are currently over 1.2 million people who use camping as their main holiday within the UK and this is set to grow in my opinion. Holding wrote the first Camper's Handbook in 1908. This book described to people, for the first time, the basics of camping. The knowledge required to write this book he learnt whilst traveling with a wagon train across the prairies of America. The journey, taken with his family in 1853 at the age of 9, was 1200 miles long, we can only marvel at the experiences he must have had. In 1887 he visited the highlands of Scotland whilst on a cruise and decided to camp from his canoe. Holding was also a keen cyclist and it was after a conversation with a friend he later embarked on what could have been the first bicycle camping trip which they took in Ireland. For this trip, Holding designed some easily portable camping equipment, embarking with 4 friends in the late 1800s. He wrote a book about this experience entitled 'Cycle and Camp in Connemara' (1898), the book has an open invitation for fellow enthusiasts to contact him, which led to the formation of Association of Cycle Campers in 1901. This very rare and now out of print book is a facsimile reprint and may contain small imperfections.