Guy Grieve

Guy Grieve was merely an average guy, enduring the long and often arduous commute to work in Edinburgh on a twice daily basis and pondering whether being another addition to the ongoing rat race was really quite his thing when he decided to disregard his financial earnings in search of a more fulfilling output. Inspired by the literary works of Henry David Thoreau, Grieve, disregarded all former responsibilities and headed into the Alaskan wilderness for a year of living an entirely self sufficient lifestyle. With no one around to provide solace in times of need, he lived a part solitary existence, with no company bar one trusty companion which came in the shape of his pet dog. Spending the first few months housed in a canvas tent, by winter he had constructed his own log cabin and was living shall we say 'off the land.' The most endearing part of the story? On returning home to his wife and children he relays that despite being unemployed they were both richer than they had ever been. Very reminiscent of the life of Christopher McCandless who did the same expedition but sadly did not survive to become reintroduced back into capitalist American society (possibly a good thing) whose life was made into the film 'Into the Wild', directed by Sean Penn and also worth a look- although I recommend reading the book first.  Having only read about Grieve's adventure in the pages of the Observer online his written exposition of this ground moving feat can be found under the name of 'Call of the Wild.' I have mine on order....