Author: Nick Cameron
ISBN No: 0 7499 2286 9
Review date: 14/12/2025
No of pages: 422
Publisher: Piatkus
Year of publication: 11/09/2012
Brief:
The Complete SAS Guide to Safe Travel, by Nick Cameron (2002).
The Complete SAS Guide to Safe Travel has one thing the matter with it – its title. The book, aimed at the business traveller as well as the holiday-maker, covers all the bases – planning your journey; travel by air, rail, car and sea; how to deal with natural hazards and terrorism; things medical; and a run-down of the 20-odd most dangerous countries in the world. All written by Nick Cameron, a former member of the SAS, a holder of the Military Cross. It’s plainly authoritative. He’s worked in fearful places – Somalia, Kosovo (‘looking after security for the BBC’), and Nigeria, for instance. But why call it an SAS guide and have the SAS badge on the cover? It’s no more justified than if I were to leave Professional Security and write a book called the Professional Security guide to something.
Nick Cameron is part of AKE Group, a consultancy set up in Hereford in 1991 by another ex-SAS man Andrew Kain. So why not call it the AKE Guide to Safe Travel? Because your average non-security book-buyer is more likely to reach for a book on the shelf with SAS on it. This is a pity because Nick Cameron has written excellently – in full yet easily digestible, setting out the risks without being alarmist. My only other quibble is that (alas) events are outstripping any advice against terror – the Moscow theatre siege showed, as if we needed any reminding, that terrorists can strike anywhere. Cameron does give useful websites at the end, and he is good on repeating the unchanging basics. For instance, whether you are on a small boat, a cruise ship, or a jet, allow yourself time to familiarise yourself with (say) the ship’s muster stations, or the plane’s emergency exits. Be alert.
A security professional seeking to brief non-security corporate executives may skip the pages on shark attacks and bungee jumping (or maybe not?). But do focus on the chapter on ‘safe business travel’. Above all, the business traveller should be cautious, and avoid getting into a routine. And be aware – yes, your hotel room may be bugged, and your laptop may be stolen for what information a rival may glean from it (so don’t leave sensitive business facts on the hard drive!) But in this chapter as all the others, much of the advice is not so much security-related as wise words for anyone, anywhere: be aware that a store receipt has your credit card details on it (so rip it up, if you bin it); keep your family or company posted about your itinerary. As Cameron writes: ‘Maintaining awareness of your surroundings when travelling or staying in a foreign country is vital.’ For example, if a police officer or some other official in a corrupt country holds you up, looking for a bribe, carry small amounts of cash on your person so you are not fleeced of more than the going rate. Usefully Cameron outlines the bribe scenario and what is best to do – here as throughout, it’s the voice of experience. Last but not least comes a chapter on navigation – for if you are lost in a jungle or a city.
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Work and pleasure
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Much of what Cameron writes is aimed at the tourist – be aware that to the local in much of the world you may be seen as filthy rich, and a target – but is as true for the executive. Cameron points out that if you choose to rent a home, you no longer have the hotel’s security measures – so beware.
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Dotted about the pages are little snapshots of the author’s work on what he calls the ‘potentially lucractive security circuit’? for former SAS men. Just one example, from 1999: sharing an ex-Soviet turpo-prop plane to Somalia with farm animals and a delegation from the Taliban, on his way to training a maritime counter-piracy and fisheries protection force. Another book by Nick Cameron – an autobiography of an ex-SAS man’s adventures in the hairier parts of the world – would be a treat.
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AKE Group offers training in surviving hostile regions; defensive driving; and related security and risk mitigation. It provides VIP close protection and consultancy.
