''Purchase redirects here. For other uses, see Purchase (disambiguation)''

Trade is the transfer of ownership of goods and services from one person or entity to another. Trade is sometimes loosely called commerce or financial transaction or barter. A network that allows trade is called a market. The original form of trade was barter, the direct exchange of goods and services. Later one side of the barter were the metals, precious metals (poles, coins), bill, paper money. Modern traders instead generally negotiate through a medium of exchange, such as money. As a result, buying can be separated from selling, or earning. The invention of money (and later credit, paper money and non-physical money) greatly simplified and promoted trade. Trade between two traders is called bilateral trade, while trade between more than two traders is called multilateral trade.

Trade exists for man due to specialization and division of labor, most people concentrate on a small aspect of production, trading for other products. Trade exists between regions because different regions have a comparative advantage in the production of some tradable commodity, or because different regions' size allows for the benefits of mass production. As such, trade at market prices between locations benefits both locations.

Retail trade consists of the sale of goods or merchandise from a very fixed location, such as a department store, boutique or kiosk, or by mail, in small or individual lots for direct consumption by the purchaser. Wholesale trade is defined as the sale of goods or merchandise to retailers, to industrial, commercial, institutional, or other professional business users, or to other wholesalers and related subordinated services.

Trading can also refer to the action performed by traders and other market agents in the financial markets.

History of trade

Prehistory

Trade originated with the start of communication in prehistoric times. Trading was the main facility of prehistoric people, who bartered goods and services from each other before the innovation of the modern day currency. Peter Watson dates the history of long-distance commerce from circa 150,000 years ago.

Ancient History

Trade is believed to have taken place throughout much of recorded human history. There is evidence of the exchange of obsidian and flint during the stone age. Materials used for creating jewelry were traded with Egypt since 3000 BC. Long-range trade routes first appeared in the 3rd millennium BC, when Sumerians in Mesopotamia traded with the Harappan civilization of the Indus Valley. The Phoenicians were noted sea traders, traveling across the Mediterranean Sea, and as far north as Britain for sources of tin to manufacture bronze. For this purpose they established trade colonies the Greeks called emporia. From the beginning of Greek civilization until the fall of the Roman empire in the 5th century, a financially lucrative trade brought valuable spice to Europe from the far east, including India and China. Roman commerce allowed its empire to flourish and endure. The Roman empire produced a stable and secure transportation network that enabled the shipment of trade goods without fear of significant piracy.

The fall of the Roman empire, and the succeeding Dark Ages brought instability to Western Europe and a near collapse of the trade network in the western world. Trade however continued to flourish among the kingdoms of Africa, Middle East, India, China and Southeast Asia. Some trade did occur in the west. For instance, Radhanites were a medieval guild or group (the precise meaning of the word is lost to history) of Jewish merchants who traded between the Christians in Europe and the Muslims of the Near East.

Middle Ages

During the Middle Ages, Central Asia was the economic center of the world. The Sogdians dominated the East-West trade route known as the Silk Road after the 4th century AD up to the 8th century AD, with Suyab and Talas ranking among their main centers in the north. They were the main caravan merchants of Central Asia.

From the 8th to the 11th century, the Vikings and Varangians traded as they sailed from and to Scandinavia. Vikings sailed to Western Europe, while Varangians to Russia. The Hanseatic League was an alliance of trading cities that maintained a trade monopoly over most of Northern Europe and the Baltic, between the 13th and 17th centuries.

Age of Discovery

Vasco da Gama pioneered the European Spice trade in 1498 when he reached Calicut after sailing around the Cape of Good Hope at the southern tip of the African continent. Prior to this, the flow of spice into Europe from India was controlled by Islamic powers, especially Egypt. The spice trade was of major economic importance and helped spur the Age of Discovery in Europe. Spices brought to Europe from the Eastern world were some of the most valuable commodities for their weight, sometimes rivaling gold.

In the 16th century, the Seventeen Provinces were the centre of free trade, imposing no exchange controls, and advocating the free movement of goods. Trade in the East Indies was dominated by Portugal in the 16th century, Holland in the 17th century, and the British in the 18th century. The Spanish Empire developed regular trade links across both the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans. In 1776, Adam Smith published the paper ''An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations''. It criticised Mercantilism, and argued that economic specialisation could benefit nations just as much as firms. Since the division of labour was restricted by the size of the market, he said that countries having access to larger markets would be able to divide labour more efficiently and thereby become more productive. Smith said that he considered all rationalisations of import and export controls "dupery", which hurt the trading nation as a whole for the benefit of specific industries.

In 1799, the Dutch East India Company, formerly the world's largest company, became bankrupt, partly due to the rise of competitive free trade.

Age of Reason

In 1817, David Ricardo, James Mill and Robert Torrens showed that free trade would benefit the industrially weak as well as the strong, in the famous theory of comparative advantage. In Principles of Political Economy and Taxation Ricardo advanced the doctrine still considered the most counterintuitive in economics: : ''When an inefficient producer sends the merchandise it produces best to a country able to produce it more efficiently, both countries benefit.''

The ascendancy of free trade was primarily based on national advantage in the mid 19th century. That is, the calculation made was whether it was in any particular country's self-interest to open its borders to imports.

John Stuart Mill proved that a country with monopoly pricing power on the international market could manipulate the terms of trade through maintaining tariffs, and that the response to this might be reciprocity in trade policy. Ricardo and others had suggested this earlier. This was taken as evidence against the universal doctrine of free trade, as it was believed that more of the economic surplus of trade would accrue to a country following ''reciprocal'', rather than completely free, trade policies. This was followed within a few years by the infant industry scenario developed by Mill promoting the theory that government had the "duty" to protect young industries, although only for a time necessary for them to develop full capacity. This became the policy in many countries attempting to industrialise and out-compete English exporters. Milton Friedman later continued this vein of thought, showing that in a few circumstances tariffs might be beneficial to the host country; but never for the world at large.

20th Century

The Great Depression was a major economic recession that ran from 1929 to the late 1930s. During this period, there was a great drop in trade and other economic indicators.

The lack of free trade was considered by many as a principal cause of the depression. Only during the World War II the recession ended in the United States. Also during the war, in 1944, 44 countries signed the Bretton Woods Agreement, intended to prevent national trade barriers, to avoid depressions. It set up rules and institutions to regulate the international political economy: the International Monetary Fund and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (later divided into the World Bank and Bank for International Settlements). These organisations became operational in 1946 after enough countries ratified the agreement. In 1947, 23 countries agreed to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade to promote free trade.

Free Trade

Free trade advanced further in the late 20th century and early 2000s:

1992 European Union lifted barriers to internal trade in goods and labour.

January 1, 1994 the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) took effect

1994 The GATT Marrakech Agreement specified formation of the WTO.

January 1, 1995 World Trade Organization was created to facilitate free trade, by mandating mutual most favoured nation trading status between all signatories.

EC was transformed into the European Union, which accomplished the Economic and Monnetary Union (EMU) in 2002, through introducing the Euro, and creating this way a real single market between 13 member states as of January 1, 2007.

2005, the Central American Free Trade Agreement was signed; It includes the United States and the Dominican Republic.

Protectionism

Protectionism is the policy of restraining and discouraging trade between states and contrasts with the policy of free trade. This policy often takes of form of tariffs and restricitive quotas. Protectionist policies were perticularly prevelent in the 1930s, between the great depression and the onset of World War II.

Religion

Muslim teachings encourage trading (and condemn usury).

Judeo-Christian teachings encourage traders to avoid dishonest gain.

Development of money

The first instances of money were objects with intrinsic value. This is called commodity money and includes any commonly available commodity that has intrinsic value; historical examples include pigs, rare seashells, whale's teeth, and (often) cattle. In medieval Iraq, bread was used as an early form of money. In Mexico under Montezuma cocoa beans were money.

Currency was introduced as a standardised money to facilitate a wider exchange of goods and services. This first stage of currency, where metals were used to represent stored value, and symbols to represent commodities, formed the basis of trade in the Fertile Crescent for over 1500 years.

Numismatists have examples of coins from the earliest large-scale societies, although these were initially unmarked lumps of precious metal.

Ancient Sparta minted coins from iron to discourage its citizens from engaging in foreign trade.

Current trends

Doha rounds

The Doha round of World Trade Organization negotiations aims to lower barriers to trade around the world, with a focus on making trade fairer for developing countries. Talks have been hung over a divide between the rich developed countries, represented by the G20, and the major developing countries. Agricultural subsidies are the most significant issue upon which agreement has been hardest to negotiate. By contrast, there was much agreement on trade facilitation and capacity building.

The Doha round began in Doha, Qatar, and negotiations have subsequently continued in: Cancún, Mexico; Geneva, Switzerland; and Paris, France and Hong Kong.

China

Beginning around 1978, the government of the People's Republic of China (PRC) began an experiment in economic reform. In contrast to the previous Soviet-style centrally planned economy, the new measures progressively relaxed restrictions on farming, agricultural distribution and, several years later, urban enterprises and labor. The more market-oriented approach reduced inefficiencies and stimulated private investment, particularly by farmers, that led to increased productivity and output. One feature was the establishment of four (later five) Special Economic Zones located along the South-east coast.

The reforms proved spectacularly successful in terms of increased output, variety, quality, price and demand. In real terms, the economy doubled in size between 1978 and 1986, doubled again by 1994, and again by 2003. On a real per capita basis, doubling from the 1978 base took place in 1987, 1996 and 2006. By 2008, the economy was 16.7 times the size it was in 1978, and 12.1 times its previous per capita levels. International trade progressed even more rapidly, doubling on average every 4.5 years. Total two-way trade in January 1998 exceeded that for all of 1978; in the first quarter of 2009, trade exceeded the full-year 1998 level. In 2008, China's two-way trade totaled US$2.56 trillion.

In 1991 the PRC joined the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation group, a trade-promotion forum. In 2001, it also joined the World Trade Organization. ''See also:'' Economy of the People's Republic of China

International trade

International trade is the exchange of goods and services across national borders. In most countries, it represents a significant part of GDP. While international trade has been present throughout much of history (see Silk Road, Amber Road), its economic, social, and political importance have increased in recent centuries, mainly because of Industrialization, advanced transportation, globalization, multinational corporations, and outsourcing. In fact, it is probably the increasing prevalence of international trade that is usually meant by the term "globalization".

Empirical evidence for the success of trade can be seen in the contrast between countries such as South Korea, which adopted a policy of export-oriented industrialization, and India, which historically had a more closed policy (although it has begun to open its economy, as of 2005). South Korea has done much better by economic criteria than India over the past fifty years, though its success also has to do with effective state institutions.

Trade sanctions

Trade sanctions against a specific country are sometimes imposed, in order to punish that country for some action. An embargo, a severe form of externally imposed isolation, is a blockade of all trade by one country on another. For example, the United States has had an embargo against Cuba for over 40 years.

Trade barriers

Although there are usually few trade restrictions within countries, international trade is usually regulated by governmental quotas and restrictions, and often taxed by tariffs. Tariffs are usually on imports, but sometimes countries may impose export tariffs or subsidies. All of these are called trade barriers. If a government removes all trade barriers, a condition of free trade exists. A government that implements a protectionist policy establishes trade barriers.

Fair trade

The fair trade movement, also known as the trade justice movement, promotes the use of labour, environmental and social standards for the production of commodities, particularly those exported from the Third and Second Worlds to the First World. Such ideas have also sparked a debate on whether trade itself should be codified as a human right.

Importing firms voluntarily adhere to fair trade standards or governments may enforce them through a combination of employment and commercial law. Proposed and practiced fair trade policies vary widely, ranging from the common prohibition of goods made using slave labour to minimum price support schemes such as those for coffee in the 1980s. Non-governmental organizations also play a role in promoting fair trade standards by serving as independent monitors of compliance with fair trade labeling requirements.

Notes

Bibliography

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Name	Heather Mills
Birth name	Heather Anne Mills
Birth date	January 12, 1968
Birth place	Aldershot, Hampshire, England
Residence	Robertsbridge, East Sussex andHove, East Sussex, England andHampstead, London, EnglandNew York City, US
Nationality	English
Education	Usworth Grange Primary & Usworth Comprehensive School, Washington, Tyne and Wear and Hydeburn Comprehensive, London
Occupation	Businesswoman, media personality, former model,charity campaigner
Networth	£24.3M+ (estimated)
Height
Spouse	(divorced) (divorced)
Children	Beatrice Milly McCartney Born: October 28, 2003
Parents	John "Mark" Francis Mills (father)Beatrice Mary Finlay (mother)
Relations	Shane Mills (brother)Fiona Mills (sister)Claire Mills (half-sister)
Website	Official website }}

Heather Anne Mills (born 12 January 1968) is a former model, an English charity campaigner and the ex-wife of musician Paul McCartney. During their marriage she was known as Heather Mills McCartney.

Mills started her own model agency in 1986, and married Alfie Karmal on 6 May 1989, but divorced him in 1991. Mills was living with her ski instructor Miloš Pogačar in Croatia in 1990, just before the Croatian War started, and later organised supplies for Croatia, accepting modelling assignments in Austria to pay for the trip. In London in 1993, Mills was hit by a police motorbike and suffered serious injuries, losing part of her left leg, six inches below her knee. She later sold her story to the ''News of the World'' and used the proceeds to establish the Heather Mills Health Trust, which recycles discarded prosthetic limbs.

Mills met McCartney at a Pride of Britain charity event, and they were married on 11 June 2002. Mills gave birth to Beatrice Milly McCartney on 28 October 2003. Mills separated from McCartney in 2006, which led to a highly publicised divorce in which she was awarded £24.3 million in a court settlement on 17 March 2008. Mills is a patron of Viva!, the Vegetarian and Vegan Foundation, vice-president of the Limbless Association and was formerly a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Association Adopt-A-Minefield program. She continues to work on behalf of various campaigns, including aid for amputees, animal rights and for the banning of land mines.

Early life

Mills was born in Aldershot, Hampshire, to John Francis "Mark" Mills (a former British paratrooper), and his wife, Beatrice Mary Mills (née Finlay), who was the daughter of a colonel in the British Army. Mills' father was adopted at age seven and grew up in Brighton, where his foster parents had a grocery shop, although his foster-father also worked as a mechanic for a Grand Prix racing team. Her mother was born in India, during World War II, but was educated at English boarding schools. Mills' parents met at Newcastle University, and were married against the wishes of Finlay's father, who did not attend the wedding, and only saw his daughter once more before he died. Mills' mother spoke several languages and played the piano, and her father played banjo and guitar, liked photography (winning an Evening Standard award), and took part in numerous sports. He was very fond of animals (working for the RSPCA for a time), and Mills remembered her family always having a dog and a cat, as well as once having a pet goose and a white nanny goat that was allowed to roam the house in Libanus, near Brecon, which was a house Mills' grandparents owned. The Mills' family spent their holidays in Libanus and also lived there for a time. When Mills was six years old, the family moved north to Alnwick, in Northumberland, but moved shortly after to a block of flats in Washington, Tyne and Wear, and then on to Cockshott Farm, in Rothbury, Northumberland. Mills attended Usworth Grange Primary school, and then Usworth Comprehensive school in Washington. (She visited Usworth Comprehensive in 2003, as guest of honour at a prize-giving event and to support the school against plans for its closure).

Mills later wrote that she was kidnapped and sexually assaulted by a swimming pool attendant when she was eight years old, but her next door neighbour, Margaret Ambler, who was sexually abused by the swimming pool attendant, alleged that Mills' story was "nothing what she made it out to be", that Mills was never a victim, and the pool attendant did not commit suicide, as Mills had written. Although having received a letter from Mills offering £10,000 to stop a court case, Ambler complained that the story had caused her deep discomfort by bringing the incident to national attention, so she sued for breach of privacy, accepting an out-of-court settlement of £5,000 in compensation, and £54,000 legal costs.

Mills' mother left home when Mills was nine years old, which left Mills, her older brother Shane, and her younger sister, Fiona, in the care of their father. Mills said that her father once threw her brother against a window for making a mess on the carpet with crayons. The window broke and her brother had to be taken to hospital, where Mills' father explained that the boy had fallen on some glass in the garden. Fiona Mills said: "Our family were always short of money and our father demanded that we find food and clothes so we turned to shoplifting, learnt to hide from the bailiffs and became experts at domestic duties. I’m not ashamed to say that we were forced to steal because when you are a young child, you’d rather do that than face a beating from your father". (Their father disputed his daughters' allegations that he was violent towards them, later releasing home movies of family holidays in Lebanus, showing Mills playing happily). Mills later wrote that she often stole food from supermarkets as a child: "By ten I was an old hand. Pinching food was really quite easy I discovered". In 2006, she visited the Sainsbury's store in her home town and was refused entry by a member of staff because she had once been caught shoplifting there.

London and modelling

When her father was jailed for 18 months after being convicted of fraud, Mills left home with her sister to live with her mother and partner (''Crossroads'' actor Charles Stapley), in Clapham, London, although her brother went to Brighton to live with his paternal grandparents. Mills later wrote that at the age of 15 she ran away to join a funfair, and then lived in a cardboard box under Waterloo Station for four months, although Stapely refuted this by saying that she occasionally left home at weekends to travel with a young man who worked for a funfair in London. During her stated period of homelessness, her school records indicate that she and her sister were both enrolled at Usworth comprehensive in Tyne and Wear until April 1983, and then at Hydeburn Comprehensive, in Balham, on 6 June 1983, where they both stayed until 2 July 1984. Mills remembered that a teacher at the Hydeburn once said, "there's no hope for her at all", and that she left school with no academic qualifications. In the same year, her father had another daughter, Claire Mills, with a new partner. Mills worked for a croissant shop, but was sacked, and vowed "never to work for anyone else again". She later wrote that the owner of a jewellery shop in Clapham gave her a job on Saturdays, but Jim Guy (the owner of Penrose Jewellers) later stated: "Everything she wrote about me was lies, I never gave her a job; she just hung around and made tea. She told me her father was dead. The only thing that was true was she nicked [stole] stuff from the shop", which Guy said was worth £20,000. Mills admitted that she had stolen some gold chains and sold them to buy a moped, and when Guy reported the theft, she was put on probation.

Mills and her mother reconciled in 1989, but her mother died shortly after, during surgery for a minor thrombosis operation. She then worked at a casino, a sunbed salon, and the Bananas cocktail bar in London. Alfie Karmal (the son of a Palestinian father and Greek mother), was ten years older than Mills when they met in 1986, while she was working as a waitress at the Bananas cocktail club in Wardour Street, London. Karmal bought her new clothes, Cartier jewellery and paid for cosmetic surgery when she complained that her breasts were sagging. She later said that she had had a breast reduction operation, reducing her bra size from a 34E to a 34C. She reached the final of the Cinzano Model of the Year Competition, so Karmal, who had moved into the computer industry, set up a model agency for her, ExSell Management, although it was not successful. Mills later tried to sell it for £5,000 but could not find a buyer. In 1987, Mills went to live in Paris, telling Karmal that a cosmetics company had given her a modelling contract, but became the mistress of millionaire Lebanese businessman George Kazan for two years, and took part in a photo session for a stills-only German sex education manual called ''Die Freuden der Liebe'' (''The Joys of Love''), in which she was photographed explicitly simulating sex with an equally nude male model, Peter Wilson. She received about £150 for the session. She also modelled for full-frontal nude photographs. After returning to London, Mills asked Karmal to marry her. Karmal said yes, but on one condition: "I told her I couldn't marry her until she did something about her compulsive lying, and she agreed to see a psychiatrist for eight weeks. She admitted she had a problem and said it was because she'd been forced to lie as a child by her father". Mills had told Karmal that she had a driving licence, and three A-levels, which Karmal later learned was not true. On 6 May 1989, Mills married Karmal (who had two sons from a previous marriage), and moved into a four-bedroom house in Dobbs Weir, Hertfordshire. Although Mills proposed to Karmal, she later said that every man she has been out with "has asked me to marry him within a week". While married to Karmal, she suffered two ectopic pregnancies, so Karmal paid for her to go on holiday to Croatia with his children and ex-wife (with whom Mills had become friends), in 1990, but Mills ended up living with her ski instructor, Pogačar, shortly before the Croatian War began. Mills then set up a refugee crisis centre in London, helping over 20 people to escape the war. She drove by herself to deliver donations to Croatia, taking modelling assignments in Austria on the way to pay for the trip, later saying that she "worked on the front line in a war zone in the former Yugoslavia for two years where there were mines everywhere that weren't marked". Karmal and Mills were divorced in 1991, and Karmal now lives in Vancouver, Canada. Mills was later engaged to Raffaele Mincione (a bond dealer for the Industrial Bank of Japan) in 1993.

Accident and amputees

On 8 August 1993, Mills and Mincione walked to the corner of De Vere Gardens and Kensington Road, London, but while crossing Kensington Road Mills was knocked down by a police motorcycle (the last in a convoy of three), which was responding to an emergency call. Mills suffered crushed ribs, a punctured lung, and the loss of her left leg 6 inches below the knee; a metal plate was later attached to her pelvis. In October 1993, she had another operation which further shortened her leg. Mills was awarded £200,000 by the police authority as recompense for her injuries, even though the police motorcyclist, PC Osbourne, was later cleared by magistrates of driving without due care and attention. After the accident, Mills sold her story to the ''News of the World'', and gave other interviews, saying she earned £180,000. She used the money to set up the Heather Mills Health Trust which delivers prosthetic limbs to people, particularly children, who have lost limbs after stepping on landmines. Mills often shows people her prosthetic leg; once taking it off during an interview on the American talk show ''Larry King Live'', in 2002.

Mills booked herself into the Hippocrates Health Institute in Florida, which put her on a raw food vegan diet, using wheat grass and garlic poultices to heal her wound. After an operation, Mills discovered that she had been previously identified as having an O rhesus negative blood type, when in fact she was A rhesus negative, which had interfered with her attempts to follow the so-called blood type diet. As her prosthetic leg had to be replaced on a regular basis (because the size of the amputated stump kept changing as it healed), she had the idea to collect thousands of discarded prosthetic limbs for amputees in Croatia, persuading the Brixton prison governor to get inmates to dismantle and pack them before being transported. The first convoy of limbs arrived in Zagreb in October 1994, and Mills travelled with the convoy to film interviews with some of the recipients for the ''Good Morning with Anne and Nick'' daytime TV show. However, Croatian citizens were already supplied with prosthetic limbs by the Croatian Institute for Health Insurance, which paid for the fitting of limbs and rehabilitation of patients.

With the help of ghostwriter Pamela Cockerill, Mills wrote a book about her experience: ''Out on a Limb'' (1995), which was republished in America as ''A Single Step'' (2002). Extracts from ''Out on a Limb'' were serialised in ''The Daily Mail'' in March 2000. Mills handed all the proceeds from the book to Adopt-A-Minefield, and stated that it was one of "the few charities that 100% of their donations goes to clear minefields and survivor assistance". In 1995, Mills got engaged to British media executive Marcus Stapleton, after being together for only 16 days, and was then engaged to respected documentary filmmaker Chris Terrill in 1999, after only 12 days in Cambodia, where they were making a film about landmines. Mills ended their relationship five days before their planned wedding day, later telling friends in the media that she had called the wedding off because Terrill was gay, an MI6 agent, and that his mission was to undermine her anti-landmine work. Terrill had once told Mills that he had been interviewed by the intelligence services when he was thinking of a career with the Foreign Office, but later said, "I soon realised that Heather had a somewhat elastic relationship with the truth, which she was able to stretch impressively sometimes". Terrill also claims that although Mills stated she was a vegetarian at the time, she often cooked her speciality dish for him; Lancashire hotpot (which contains lamb) and her ex sister-in-law, Dianna Karmal, claims that Mills only became a vegetarian after meeting McCartney. In 2003, the Open University awarded her an honorary doctorate for her philanthropic work on behalf of amputees.

Relationship with Paul McCartney

Mills met McCartney at the Dorchester Hotel, during the Pride of Britain Awards event in April 1999, where McCartney presented an award to an animal rights activist, and Mills presented the Outstanding Bravery Award to Helen Smith, also making an appeal on behalf of the Heather Mills Health Trust. McCartney also presented an award dedicated to his late wife, Linda McCartney. McCartney talked to Mills about donating to her charity – later giving her £150,000. In the autumn of 1999, Mills and her sister recorded "VO!CE"; a song they wrote to raise funds for Mills' charity, with McCartney agreeing to sing backing vocals. After recording the song in Greece (where Mills’ sister lived, running the independent label Coda Records), the sisters stayed overnight at McCartney's estate in Peasmarsh, Sussex, in early November, where McCartney added vocals to the song. Having sparked the interest of the tabloids about his appearances with Mills at events, McCartney appeared publicly beside her at a party in January 2000 to celebrate her 32nd birthday.

While on holiday in the Lake District, McCartney proposed to Mills on 23 July 2001, giving her a £15,000 diamond and sapphire ring he had purchased in Jaipur, India, when they were both there on holiday. Former escort Denize Hewitt, then a friend, claims that Mills said she would give McCartney an ultimatum to marry her, and threaten to leave him if he refused. Mills stipulated that McCartney had to agree to stop smoking cannabis before she agreed to marry him, complaining that he used the drug "as regularly as others drink cups of tea", and that she has never taken any illegal drugs in her life.

Marriage

Mills and McCartney were married on 11 June 2002, four years after McCartney's first wife, Linda McCartney, had died of breast cancer. Their wedding was an elaborate ceremony at Castle Leslie (once the home of Shane Leslie), in the village of Glaslough in County Monaghan, Ireland. Mills said that she liked to cook traditional (but meat-free) Christmas dinners for McCartney and as many of his family as possible, and that McCartney had encouraged her to give up her self-confessed addiction to chocolate and Snickers bars. When asked by chat-show host Larry King (in 2003), how life was with McCartney, Mills replied "Great, really great," but also said that she was surprised at how tidy McCartney was: "He always cleans up before the cleaner comes. So I said for a while that's crazy, but what's good is if I cook the dinner, he'll clean everything up." In 2003, McCartney played a concert in Red Square, Russia. Vladimir Putin gave Mills and McCartney a tour of the Kremlin. Mills went on every tour with McCartney during their marriage, as McCartney insisted on her accompanying him, with Mills saying that she helped to design the stage sets and lighting, and also helped McCartney to write songs. McCartney later said that Mills' contribution was giving him an acrylic fingernail to protect a finger on his left hand that often bled after playing guitar. McCartney admitted that Mills inspired him, as "being in love with her makes me want to write songs", such as "Too Much Rain" on ''Chaos and Creation in the Backyard'', and "See Your Sunshine" ("She makes me feel glad/I want her so bad") from ''Memory Almost Full''. Another composition inspired by Mills was used as the bridal march at their wedding.

During a ''Parkinson'' chat show on 22 February 2003, host Michael Parkinson asked if it was because of McCartney that Mills did not give any interviews, and she replied that she wanted to protect McCartney, his children, and their privacy. On the same show she said that her previous ectopic pregnancies had damaged her fertility, and that her chances of getting pregnant were small, although the couple announced that they were expecting their first child in May 2003. Mills gave birth to Beatrice Milly McCartney on 28 October 2003, who was named after Mills' mother, and McCartney's aunt. It was later revealed that Mills had suffered a miscarriage in the first year of marriage to McCartney. Mills was invited by Larry King to interview Paul Newman, which was broadcast by CNN on 17 April 2004. McCartney had arranged for Newman to be interviewed by Mills, but critical reactions to the show were mixed. Mills appeared on other TV programmes, such as BBC1's ''Question Time'' and GMTV, and persuaded McCartney to join her on ITV's ''Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?''

Although stating that they had a good sex life, Mills started complaining about the marriage to friends, saying that McCartney was "a boring old fart", and wondering why he had no social life, as well as saying "he has no friends and it's driving me mad". She did not like living at the remote McCartney home in Peasmarsh: "The only thing he [McCartney] ever does is occasionally go to the pub with his roadie. We never have parties or do fun things". After some time apart, Mills and McCartney separated on 17 May 2006. In November 2007, Mills gave a number of interviews, saying that the breakdown of the marriage was caused by her husband's daughter, Stella, whom she described as "jealous" and "evil". Mills had previously talked with ''New York'' magazine, saying Stella had once issued a press release confirming how much she liked her new stepmother, although Stella's publicist denied that such a statement had ever been issued.

After dismissing Anthony Julius, a Mishcon de Reya lawyer, Mills stated she would represent herself in the upcoming divorce hearing, with help from her sister Fiona, David Rosen (a solicitor-advocate), and Michael Shilub, an American attorney. In leaked documents, Mills complained that McCartney was often drunk, smoked cannabis, stabbed her with a broken wine glass, pushed her over a table, and pushed her into a bathtub when she was pregnant with their daughter. Referring to her part in the marriage, Mills said that she had been a full-time wife, mother, lover, confidante, business partner and psychologist to McCartney. McCartney’s lawyers studied Mills’ book: ''Life Balance: The Essential Keys to a Lifetime of Wellbeing'' (released on 25 May 2006), as it contradicted many of her claims, such as when she praised McCartney in the book for "bringing me breakfast in bed every morning, no matter how he feels, and I do the dinner, so we’ve got that agreement. It’s thoughtfulness". Mills' father reconciled with his daughter after meeting her and McCartney, when they introduced him to his granddaughter, Beatrice. After their separation, he said that it "took guts to represent yourself at the High Court", and that he was proud of his daughter, even though he thought she would be "torn to shreds" by McCartney's lawyers.

Divorce

The case was heard in court 34 of the Royal Courts of Justice, on The Strand, in the City of Westminster, London. At the start of the proceedings Mills asked for £125 million, but McCartney offered £15.8 million. Before the court case, Mills had employed the accountancy firm Lee and Allen to examine McCartney's publishing company, business assets and properties, saying that she had a tape recording of McCartney admitting his true worth, but the presiding judge, Justice Bennett, turned down numerous requests for information by Lee and Allen. The judge accepted McCartney's assets as being £450 million, and not £800 million, as had been suggested.

The hearing took six days, finishing on 18 February 2008, with the judgment being made public on 17 March 2008. Mills was eventually awarded a lump sum of £16.5m, together with assets of £7.8m, which included the properties she owned at the time. The total was £24.3 million, plus payments of £35,000 per annum, for a nanny and school costs for their daughter. In his judgment, Justice Bennett described Mills as a "kindly person" who argued her case with a "steely, yet courteous, determination", but concluded that much of her evidence was, "not just inconsistent and inaccurate but also less than candid", and that overall she was a "less than impressive witness". The divorce was granted on 12 May 2008, and the preliminary divorce decree was finalised six weeks later. Mills pleaded with two High Court judges to keep the full judgment secret, saying that it could make her vulnerable to "crazed" fans of The Beatles. She later considered trying to have the gagging order stopping her talking publicly about the case lifted, as the sections released were against her wishes, saying that it would "perhaps be better for the public to see everything". Mills later vowed to continue her legal fight to get full transcripts of the divorce court case made publicly available.

After the decision, Mills talked about McCartney: "I will never get over it. I will always love Paul. He is the father of my child, but I just have to move on and deal with it and there is nothing I can do ... I have never spoken badly about my husband. I never will, he is the father of my child". Mills later threatened to release tapes of McCartney in therapy talking about problems with his late wife, portraying him as a drug and alcohol addict, and researching McCartney's assets to prove he has more than £400 million. A High Court gagging clause preventing Mills talking about McCartney's family life could mean a prison sentence, but McCartney said: "There'll be no more nagging, no more chaos, no more Heather ... bliss. I have peace at last".

Daughter

When McCartney planned a holiday with his daughter Beatrice at La Gazelle d'Or hotel in Morocco during April 2008, Mills faxed eight pages of instructions to the hotel on what she should and cannot eat. She was insistent that Beatrice’s strict vegan diet should be adhered to, and was "driving the hotel staff mad, faxing both the head chef and manager instructions and recipe suggestions for Bea". McCartney was furious, as he had successfully brought up his children as vegetarians. McCartney suggested taking Beatrice on a world tour in 2008, but Mills insisted on rules that would have to be followed: she would accompany her daughter for the 14 months in a private jet and no swearing would be allowed by musicians or road crew in front of her daughter.

Activism

In 2005, Mills became a patron of the British animal rights organisation Viva!, and the Vegetarian and Vegan Foundation, which are both run by Juliet Gellatley. In 2006, Mills and Gellatley attended a debate on fur at the Oxford Union, where she presented a video depicting the skinning of a dog. She posed with her own dog in an anti-fur advertisement for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), which read: "If you wouldn't wear your dog, please don't wear fur".

In March 2006, Mills and McCartney travelled to Canada to bring attention to the country's annual seal hunt. Sponsored by the Humane Society of the United States, they complained that the hunt was inhumane, and called on the Canadian government to put an end to it. Their arrival on the floes sparked much attention in Newfoundland and Labrador, where 90 percent of the sealers live. Mills and McCartney protested against seals being clubbed to death, pierced with boat hooks and sometimes skinned alive. Newfoundland and Labrador's Premier, Danny Williams, debated the issue with them on ''Larry King Live'', the issue being that seals are no longer hunted that way, and have not been for a while. Mills joined a Viva! film team at a pig farm in Somerset, in February 2007, to publicise the use of restrictive farrowing crates, which are used for sows who are suckling piglets. A video of the investigation was made available on the Internet.

Mills' relationship with PETA ended in 2007, when McCartney's daughter, Mary, said she would not continue to take photographs for the organisation if Mills was involved with them. A PETA representative told the ''New York Post'': "Heather's exposé of the Chinese fur industry remains one of most popular videos on our site, but we don't have any imminent campaigns planned with her".

Mills spoke in Hyde Park, London, on 19 November 2007, wearing a green t-shirt saying, "Vegan, you can't get greener", arguing in favour of veganism on the grounds that livestock create more carbon emissions than transport (although she drove a Mercedes four-wheel drive car to the press conference, keeping the engine running for part of the morning). Mills said: "Eighty percent of global warming comes from livestock and deforestation. I'm not telling people to go vegan overnight. But if they stop drinking their cows' milk lattes, maybe this sort of thing won't have to happen". She went on to say: "You have 25 other alternate milks in many health stores and supermarkets. It's kind of bizarre. Why don't we drink rat's milk or dog's milk or cat's milk? You know, there are many, many other options". This led ''The Daily Telegraph'', among others, to report the press conference under the headline, "Drink Rats' Milk, says Heather Mills".

In 2008, an old video surfaced of Mills wearing a mink coat she had owned in 1989, but explained to reporters that she had bought it years before becoming involved in animal rights organisations or vegetarianism. Although she had separated from McCartney, Mills said: "It's only since I met Paul [McCartney] that I really got to understand how vegetarianism not only benefits your health massively but also makes a huge difference to the planet, to animals, and to feeding the world". In August 2008, she was honoured by the organisation Farm Animal Rights Movement (FARM), with the Celebrity Animal Activist Award, presented at the Animal Rights National Conference. On 28 August 2009, at the Celebrity Catwalk event in Hollywood, Mills showed off her new "recycled clothes from charity shops" range, called Be@one. It has not been well-received by either critics or the public. After her divorce, Mills pledged to give a "large portion" of her £24.3 million divorce settlement to Adopt-A-Minefield, but the charity has not received any to date. In June 2008, Mills was asked to talk at a New York party about the cruelty of puppy farms and to promote her book about animals, but was angry about the guests speaking over her speech, saying: "Listen up at the back. I haven’t been up for 24 hours and flew here from London to be ignored". Mills' former publicist of four years, Michele Elyzabeth, decided to cease representing her on 25 July 2008.

Commercial interests

On 4 July 2009, Mills opened a vegan restaurant called VBites at Hove Lagoon, Hove, Sussex, on the site of the old Big Fish Cafe, which she is reported to have purchased for £140,000. Mills is quoted as saying that she intends it to be the first in a worldwide chain of vegan restaurants. Whilst promoting the restaurant, Mills gave an interview to the BBC, stating that she'd been very proactive in the building-stages and, now that it was open, would give as much time to it as she could – working it around her charity work.

Mills bought the vegan food company Redwood Foods in 2009. The company, which is located in Corby, Northants, sells 50 meat-free products, under the brand names Cheatin', VegiDeli, and Cheezly.

Media image and criticism

Mills' relationship with McCartney triggered considerable media interest, but after her divorce, the attitude of the British media was hostile, as Mills was accused of embellishing her life story, being a former prostitute, a shoplifter, and of having married McCartney for his money. Mills frequently accuses the press of misquoting her, and of using material out of context to give a negative impression of her, telling the ''Evening Standard'' that the claims that she had married McCartney for his money were more hurtful than losing her leg.

Mills has been accused by several newspapers of having embellished her life story: journalist Heather Mills, then at ''The Observer'', accused Mills of impersonating her for over a year in the late 1990s, showing people cuttings of articles the journalist had written, which helped Mills secure a job presenting ''The General'' TV show, which was a BBC programme about Southampton General Hospital. There were also doubts about Mills’ claim that she had been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize (because the Heather Mills Health Trust had given away thousands of prosthetic limbs to landmine victims), but the nomination cannot be proven because the identities of all nominees are a secret for 50 years.

Stapely disputed Mills' statement that her mother had nearly lost a leg in a car crash, after Mills said, "her leg was only hanging on by a tiny flap of skin and flesh ... miraculously the surgeons managed to insert a metal plate and reattach it". Stapely said that Mills' mother had suffered a leg injury after a car crash, but recovered and was "a keen tennis player" and that Mills, "is simply a very confused woman for whom reality and fantasy have become blurred". He died in January 2011.

Mills said that she had once been asked to stand for parliament by the three main political parties, and had been offered a peerage in 2001 (to become Baroness Mills) by the then British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, and a certain "Lord Macdonald". An ITV documentary (''McCartney vs McCartney: The Ex Files'') interviewed three Lord Macdonalds, but not one of them could remember ever meeting Mills. British journalist Jasper Gerard, to whom Mills made the claims, also says she told him that she had cancelled a meeting with Bill Clinton in case her endorsement affected a US election outcome. Mills stated that she was once awarded the ''Outstanding Young Person of the Year'' award by the British Chambers of Commerce, but did not challenge newspapers after they discovered there was no such award.

In 2006, Adnan Khashoggi, the Saudi billionaire businessman and Kerry Packer, the Australian media tycoon, were named in the ''News of the World'' as former clients of Mills from the time when she allegedly worked as an escort girl. Packer's son denied that his late father had been involved. The newspaper provided an affidavit from escort girl Denise Hewitt (who was paid £50,000 for the story), who said she worked with Mills providing sexual services and that Mills boasted of earning up to £10,000 in a single night. Mills often requested to work with two girls at a time "... to do a 'girlie scene'. By this I knew she meant lesbian sex" said Hewitt "I thought at the time that Heather may have been bisexual". To substantiate its claims, the ''News of the World'' questioned Abdul Khoury, who was Khashoggi's personal secretary from 1977 to 2005. Khoury affirmed the veracity of reports that Mills "had sex with him [Khashoggi] on a number of occasions in return for money. Mr Khashoggi was always very pleased with Heather's performance. She was very athletic in bed". The ''Daily Mail'' produced accounts of another escort girl, Petrina Montrose and from other friends confirming that Mills had worked with them as an escort girl on many occasions. Montrose said that once "when all three of them were in the bedroom, Heather had ‘tried it on' with [escort girl] Joanna and suggested lesbian sex". Through her lawyers, Mills denied ever having been an escort girl and said she would sue as soon as her divorce was concluded. This has not happened.

In October 2006, Mills announced her intention to sue ''The Daily Mail'', ''The Sun'' and the ''Evening Standard''. All the newspapers said that the stories "were obtained by proper methods and in accordance with good journalistic practice". ''The Sun'', which regularly refers to Mills as "Mucca"—a play on McCartney's nickname "Macca"—responded by asking her to "tick the boxes" on a series of allegations the newspaper had made, stating, "It is not clear what exactly she plans to sue us about". Underneath the open questions, ''The Sun'' listed six allegations about her, with a blank box beside each one. The words beside the boxes read: "Hooker, Liar, Porn Star, Fantasist, Trouble Maker, Shoplifter".

In December 2006, Mills told the BBC that she had received death threats, and on 17 December 2006, police stated that a "non-specific threat" had been made to her safety. This led to more criticism that she was calling out the emergency services too often. In March 2007, Kevin Moore, Chief Superintendent of Sussex Police, said that Mills was running "the risk of being treated as the little boy who cried wolf", and added, "We do have to respond to a disproportionate high volume of calls from Heather Mills McCartney because of the situations she finds herself in, and this is regrettable as it takes officers away from other policing matters". Mills responded that the police had told her to contact them whenever she was being harassed.

During several interviews in October 2007, Mills accused the media of giving her "worse press than a paedophile or a murderer". She also criticised the media over the treatment of Diana, Princess of Wales—who, according to Mills, was "chased and killed" by paparazzi—and of Kate McCann. Immediately before giving these interviews, her PR adviser, Phil Hall (the ex-Editor of the ''News of the World''), quit. In 2008, a survey commissioned by ''Marketing'' magazine showed Mills as one of the top five most hated celebrity women, along with Amy Winehouse, Victoria Beckham and Kerry Katona.

In December 2008, the Channel 4 television comedy series ''Star Stories'' broadcast a satirical mockumentary of Mills' life story from her point of view. In 2009, after petitioning the Press Complaints Commission in the UK about being lied about in the press, five British tabloids (''The Sun'', ''The Daily Express'', ''News of the World'', ''Sunday Mirror'' and ''Daily Mirror'') publicly apologised to Mills about printing false, hurtful or defamatory stories about her. Another tabloid (the ''Daily Mail''), sent a private letter of apology. The stories in question were not those alleging prostitution, lying, or being a fantasist, but more recent untrue stories concerning her daughter, false allegations of a romantic relationship, false suggestions regarding cosmetic surgery, and false accounts of her spending. On 4 May 2009, ''The Sun'' published a small paragraph saying that they have been asked to make clear that Mills "denies spending £10 million of her settlement; trying to sell her home to her ex-husband; masterminding a smear campaign against him; spending £1 million on a swimming pool, £0.5 million on staff wages and £6 million on properties as they had reported" and they regretted "the misunderstanding". Mills has complained that over 4,400 abusive articles about her have been published.

Criticism of press coverage

In 2002, Mills accepted damages of £50,000 plus costs from the ''Sunday Mirror'', after a false report that the Charity Commission had investigated her about the money she raised for the Indian earthquake victims appeal in 2001. The extent and nature of the British press coverage of Mills has been criticised, as in May 2003, when columnist Matt Seaton (''The Guardian''), wrote a piece declaring, "There is little that is edifying in the symbolic lynching of Heather [Mills]. The poisonous judgmentalism that drives it is in the worst tradition of small town gossip. It is prurient, spiteful, hypocritical, and we should cry 'shame' on it". Publicist Mark Borkowski wrote in the ''Independent on Sunday'', on 23 March 2008: "Not since the cult of Myra Hindley have we encountered so much vitriol aimed at one woman". Feminist writer Natasha Walter has compared the coverage to that of Britney Spears. Terence Blacker wrote that public figures who are young, female, pretty and fair-haired, are often subjected to public bullying which is explained as "intense media interest", such as Diana, Princess of Wales, Paula Yates, Ulrika Jonsson, and Mills.

Kira Cochrane, in ''The Guardian'', said that "every misogynist epithet available" has been used against Mills. "She has somehow become the vessel through which it is acceptable for both pundits and the public to express their very worst feelings about women". Joan Smith, writing in ''The Independent'', said that newspaper "Bullies love a weakling"; quoting the ''Daily Mirror'''s front page headline: "Lady Liar", and ''The Sun'' newspaper writing "Pornocchio" over Mills' face (in reference to Pinocchio's nose getting longer when he lied, and her past photographs). Smith went on to say that Mills had "dreamt of becoming the wife of a famous man but did not realise that he had fantasies of his own, marrying an attractive younger woman when he hadn't got over the loss of his first wife. Mills behaved foolishly when the marriage failed but she does not deserve the treatment she has had in the mass-market press. It is merciless bullying of an unstable, vulnerable woman". In 2009, Mills reported a bogus charity was set up to extract information about her marriage. News Corp, owned by Rupert Murdoch, is alleged to have set up the sting. The British tabloid newspaper ''The Mirror'' ran the headline, "Macca marriage to Heather was mistake of the decade" following an interview McCartney gave to ''Q magazine''. McCartney immediately moved to deny this statement, and then went on to publicly print the original transcript to prove the ''Mirror'' article was false on his official website.

Phone hacking

On 5 May 2011, ''The Guardian'' newspaper reported that Mills met with officers from the London Metropolitan Police who have shown her evidence, seized from private investigator Glenn Mulcaire, which could form the basis of a claim against the ''News of the World'' tabloid newspaper for breach of privacy over alleged phone hacking. Mills's name and private mobile phone number were listed in Mulcaire's notes along with those of her friends and associates. Mills herself later alleged that a journalist working for the Mirror Group had admitted to her in 2001 that he had hacked her phone.

TV

Mills was one of the celebrity performers showcased during the US television series ''Dancing with the Stars'' in 2007, with dancing partner Jonathan Roberts. On 21 December 2009 she was revealed as one of the contestants on the fifth series of ''Dancing on Ice'' and was paired with Matt Evers. She has stated that she would take part in the show in order to support the charities she frequently donates to, and also to show that disabled people can do more than people think. A subsequent campaign to get Mills removed from the show began online, despite being the favourite to leave first, she was not voted off in the initial show. Mills has also claimed that she turned down an offer of £350,000—the same figure given to participant Vinnie Jones—to appear on the final series of the UK's ''Celebrity Big Brother''. On 12 January 2010, her 42nd birthday, she was involved in a minor car accident following rehearsal for ''Dancing on Ice''. She was not hurt.

Present life

Mills lives in Robertsbridge, East Sussex, and in Hove, East Sussex, having recently sold her Manhattan apartment at 173 Perry Street in West Village for $5million which she bought in 2009 for $4.9million.

She continues to campaign for amputees, in addition to promoting the distribution of prostheses around the world, and has been involved with the development of the Heather Mills McCartney Cosmesis, which gives amputees in America the chance to wear a Dorset Orthopaedic cosmesis, without having to travel to the UK. Mills is also vice-president of the Limbless Association. In 2004, she received a "Children in Need" award from the annual International Charity Gala in Düsseldorf, and in the same year, the University of California, Irvine, gave her their 2004 Human Security Award, and created the Heather Mills McCartney Fellowship in Human Security to support graduate students conducting research on pressing human security issues. She is a former Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Association Adopt-A-Minefield programme.

On 1 December 2007, Neil Simpson published ''The Unsinkable Heather Mills: The Unauthorized Biography of the Great Pretender''. On 4 June 2010 a claim for compensation alleging sexual and maternity discrimination and constructive dismissal brought by a Sara Trumble, who had been employed since April 2004 as nanny to Mills' daughter, was dismissed unanimously at Ashford Employment Tribunal Centre, Kent. The tribunal concluded that all of the claims were unfounded. Employment judge Steven Vowles said that "Mills's kindness towards Miss Trumble showed that she genuinely cared about her as both an employee and a friend".

On 17 December 2010, it was announced that Mills has been offered a trial in the British disabled ski team's development squad for the 2014 Winter Paralympic Games to be held in Sochi, Russia, and in April 2011, she bought a ski ­chalet near Goldeck am Millstätter See, in the Austrian Alps, for £1.4million as a base for her 2014 Winter Paralympic Games training. The ''Daily Mail'' reported, on 12 May 2011, that Mills was airlifted to hospital by helicopter, "after her right shoulder blade broke in several places", following a skiing accident, when she had collided with a frozen plastic pole during training with the British Disabled Ski Team’s development squad on the Mölltaler glacier in Austria. In May 2011, ''Hello!'' magazine ran an article about Heather Mills' ambitions for the 2014 Paralympic Games as well as her efforts to stay fit and healthy with her Vegan lifestyle.

Notes

References

}} }} }} }} }}

External links

Heather Mills – official website

Photo of Mark Mills Heather Mills's father

Limbless Association – official website

V Bites – official website

Category:1968 births Category:Living people Category:People from Aldershot Category:People from Washington, Tyne and Wear Category:English female models Category:English amputees Category:Paul McCartney Category:English vegans Category:Dancing on Ice participants Category:Animal rights advocates Category:People from Rother (district) Category:People with disabilities

cs:Heather Millsová de:Heather Mills es:Heather Mills eo:Heather Mills fr:Heather Mills it:Heather Mills nl:Heather Mills pl:Heather Mills pt:Heather Mills sv:Heather Mills yi:העטהער מיללס

name	Ray Mears
birth date	February 07, 1964
birth place	Kenley, London
known for	Bushcraft and survival techniques
occupation	Television presenter and author
nationality	British
children	}}

Raymond Paul "Ray" Mears (born 7 February 1964) is an English woodsman, instructor, author and TV presenter. His TV appearances cover bushcraft and survival techniques, and he is best known for the TV series ''Ray Mears' Bushcraft'', ''Ray Mears' World of Survival'', ''Extreme Survival'', ''Survival with Ray Mears'', ''Wild Britain with Ray Mears'' and ''Ray Mears Goes Walkabout''.

Early life

Mears grew up in Kenley, Greater London, and the North Downs, where he discovered a countryside abundant with wildlife. Educated at Reigate Grammar School, a co-educational independent school in Reigate, Surrey, he learned to track foxes in the forest at a young age. As a boy, he desired to sleep out on the trail, but unable to afford camping equipment, he resorted to setting up camp using what he could find in his surroundings.

Interests

Mears's enthusiasm for his subject, combined with his broad knowledge of survival and the uses which may be made of plants, trees and other natural materials found in woodland, forest or desert, have made him a popular figure in TV broadcasting in the UK. He has travelled extensively across the world for his TV series and has learned survival techniques from the indigenous peoples he has met. In his programmes he demonstrates his knowledge of the wild, how to find food from seeds, berries, roots and other growing things, and how to survive by constructing temporary shelters, fires and canoes from natural materials.

Mears is particularly interested in the survival of groups of resistance fighters and partisans for extended periods during the Second World War, such as the Norwegian heavy water plant saboteurs (see ''The Real Heroes of Telemark'') and the Bielski brothers in Belarus (see ''Extreme Survival'').

Personal life

Mears met his long term partner, Rachel, in 1992 when she attended one of his five day survival courses. The couple lived in East Sussex with her two adult children, and married in 2005, after Rachel was diagnosed with breast cancer. Rachel died from cancer in 2006, aged 50, and her ashes are scattered in the Ashdown forest near their home.

In 2005, Mears was a passenger in a serious helicopter accident while filming a documentary in Wyoming. The helicopter in which he was travelling with his camera crew struck the ground during a steep low level turn, and broke apart, rolling to a stop. The fuel tank was ruptured in the accident, and escaping fuel covered Mears and the crew. No fire occurred, and Mears was able to escape the wreckage and assist in the rescue and first aid of one of the crew who was badly injured. Mears escaped uninjured.

Non-television work

Mears started his bushcraft company aged 19. Mears' first book, ''The Survival Handbook'', was published in 1990. Mears has continued to publish books, both standalone works, and as accompaniments to his TV series.

In September 2007, he was awarded an honorary doctorate from Oxford Brookes University, and in the same year he began to deliver public lectures across the United Kingdom on his experiences in front of and behind the lens.

In July 2010, Mears was asked by Northumbria Police to help them track fugitive killer Raoul Moat, after he fled his temporary tent-based shelter in the village of Rothbury.

Television

Mears has made a number of series for BBC television, visiting various parts of the world and covering such topics as bushcraft and survival skills, the traditional culture of indigenous peoples, and the achievements of noted explorers.

In 2009 he was approached by ITV to present a planned revival of its long-running nature documentary series ''Survival''. The resulting three-part series was rebranded ''Survival with Ray Mears'' and broadcast on ITV1 in 2010. Each episode followed Mears as he used his tracking skills to locate bears, wolves and leopards. In a ''Radio Times'' interview to promote the series, Mears complained of being typecast by the BBC. This series was followed by ''Wild Britain with Ray Mears'', also broadcast by ITV.

Series

''Wild Tracks'' (BBC, 1994)

''Tracks'' (BBC, 1994–97)

''Ray Mears' World of Survival'' (BBC, 1997–98, 2 seasons of 6 episodes each)

''Ray Mears' Country Tracks'' (BBC, 1998, 2002–03)

''The Essential Guide to Rocks'' (BBC Education, 1998)

''Ray Mears' Extreme Survival'' (BBC, 1999–2002, 3 seasons of 6 episodes each)

''Ray Mears' Adventure Special'' (BBC, 2001) – Mears takes Ewan McGregor into the Honduran jungle on the trail of the prehistoric people of the Mosquito Coast.

''Ray Mears' Real Heroes of Telemark'' (BBC, 2003)

''Ray Mears' Bushcraft'' (BBC, 2004–05, 2 seasons of 5 episodes each)

''Ray Mears' Wild Food'' (BBC, 2007, 5 episodes)

''Ray Mears Goes Walkabout'' (BBC, June 2008, 4 episodes) – Mears tours the Australian outback. An accompanying hardcover book was published in the UK by Hodder and Stoughton in March 2008. In the series Mears meets one of his heroes: Les Hiddins (aka "The Bush Tucker Man").

''Ray Mears' Northern Wilderness'' (BBC Two, Autumn 2009, 6 episodes) – Mears follows in the footsteps of pioneers who opened up Canada, such as Samuel Hearne, John Rae and David Thompson.

''Survival with Ray Mears'' (ITV, Spring 2010, 3 episodes)

''Wild Britain with Ray Mears'' (ITV, Autumn 2010, 6 episodes) - To be followed in 2011 by extended 60 minute episodes with exclusive additional content to be broadcast on UKTV's natural history channel Eden.

Books

''The Survival Handbook'' (1990)

''The Outdoor Survival Handbook'' (1992)

''Ray Mears' World of Survival'' (1997)

''Bushcraft'' (2002)

''Essential Bushcraft'' (2003)

''The Real Heroes of Telemark: The True Story of the Secret Mission to Stop Hitler's Atomic Bomb'' (2003)

''Ray Mears' Bushcraft Survival'' (2005)

''Wild Food by Ray Mears & Professor Gordon Hillman'' (2007)

''Ray Mears Goes Walkabout'' (2008)

''Vanishing World - A Life of Bushcraft'' (2008)

''Northern Wilderness'' (2009)

Quotations

Quotations by Ray Mears include:

''"Bushcraft is what you carry in your mind and your muscles."''

''"The great thing about bushcraft is that wherever you go, the skills go with you."''

''"One of the great things about bushcraft is that skills you learn in your back garden can be used all over the world."''

''"Knowledge is the key to survival and the best thing about that is: it doesn't weigh anything."''

''"You cannot underestimate the importance of preparation."''

''"As far as I'm concerned, these people are just showmen."'' On Bear Grylls

See also

Les Hiddins aka Bushtucker Man

Mors Kochanski

Lofty Wiseman

Richard Proenneke

Les Stroud - in Survivorman

Bear Grylls

Rüdiger Nehberg (''Sir Vival'')

Bruce Parry British anthropologist

Lars Monsen Norwegian adventurer and journalist

References

External links

Ray Mears' own web site

Ray Mears on MySpace

Ray Mears @ IMDb

Ray Mears' Survival shows on Dave (UKTV)

Photographs of 2005 helicopter accident

itvWILD">Wild Britain on itvWILD

Ray Mears Woodlore Facebook page

Ray Mears Bushcraft Official Youtube page

Category:British television presenters Category:British writers Category:1964 births Category:Living people Category:Old Reigatians Category:People from Kenley Category:Survivalists

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