The first edition of 1000 paperbacks sold out about two years ago. The original title was 'Walking on Snow' and was printed by a local company here in Norway. My biggest customer was Inntravel, a Yorkshire-based specialist holiday company who are very hot on service. They gave every newcomer to skiing one of my books in advance of their skiing holiday, regardless of where they were going. I have been looking after Inntravel's guests who book into Rustad Hotell in Sjusjøen for about 18 years now. The British have always been a small percentage of my clientele; most are from mainland Europe who generally stay in one of the 5000 private cabins in the area.After 25 wonderful years of teaching and guiding downhill skiing, I used the experience gained from 5 different ski schools on 3 continents to develop my own blend of teaching tools. When the British army insisted that I teach cross county at a basic level, in addition to my teacher-trainer duties in Alpine that I had signed up for.....I had misgivings. There was no teaching manual available anywhere. The poor relation that is cross country skiing had nothing of the highly technical, minutely detailed information that was available to Alpine teachers. After literally 30 mins of 'do as I do' from one of the army sergeants, I was let loose with 8 squaddies who were expecting to learn how to ski from square one. The 'First Steps' system evolved over the next two seasons and became a book in 2005. I have taught hundreds of people of all ages, sizes and shapes to ski and have had only one total failure. The Pakistani ambassador to Oslo felt obliged to try the sport which Norwegians are so keen on so he hired me for a lesson. He was built so slightly that he was unable to fill the boots enough to get any support from them - the poor fellow was walking like a drunk person in high-heels. We went about 10 meters and removed the offending appendages before he did himself a mischief, spending the rest of the lesson wandering down the track discussing the merits of spin bowlers versus seamers in test cricket. He was delighted to be able to return to his office on Monday morning and declare that he had been skiing over the weekend. In stark contrast to this are the 3 British twenty-somethings who hired me for a two hour lesson then practiced for three days before going to Greenland to compete in the 'Arctic Race' - which they all finished in fine style. This sport is what you make of it. Go for a gentle stroll in beautiful nature or walk and jog for a few hours a day over a hill or two, or inflict as much pain on yourself as you like. This book is for everyone to get started with a solid understanding of what they should be trying to do. I have set up a channel on Utube with nearly the same title as the book ~ How to Cross Country Ski in Tracks. It is free and open to everyone, but is not intended to be a visual version of the book - it is (will be) a mixture of fun, demos, snowy things and all at at low adrenaline pace. That is what we have in bucket-fulls here.....time and space.