I don't know if we are talking about same thing but I got as a gift 4 volumes of SAS survival books (Desert, Mountain/Arctic, Regular and Jungle). I did find them informative but each volume repeated it self. Introduction and basic skills were just copied over (major portion) and just further portions of the book accomodated given topic. I found some decent advices there and acctually tried a few.

Really good book that I picked up on sale is Air Force Survival Manual. It's a thick book but covers everything you need to know about survival.

Matt