Hammond, Richard Biography
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On The Edge - Richard Hammond
by Tiggertastic I am not normally one to read autobiographies but I had bought this for my husband as he is a big fan of Top Gear and Richard Hammond. But he had never bothered to read it and when I went on Maternity leave I decided I would give it a read as I too like Richard Hammond. I think most people will remember the crash that Richard ... Hammond was involved in. It was a horrendous accident that could have easily had fatal consequences. This book covers the crash that he had in the jet car, and the events that took place running upto the accident and the months of recovery afterwards. It also gives some background into his childhood and you get insight into why he wanted to work on Top Gear. Richard's wife Mindy tells some of the story as Richard was in a coma for around a fortnight and for a long time afterwards his memory was seriously affected. With Richard's wife writing some of the book you get a rare insight into how she and other memebers of the family heard the news, their thoughts and feelings. You get to see how Richard's accident affected other people and not just Richard, which I thought was refreshing as in most autobiographies you just get the writers point of view and no one elses. I found the book so compelling I had finished it within two days of picking it up, I just couldn't put it down. I thought it was a very heartfelt book that must have been very difficult to write, for both him and his wife. Read the complete review |
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Or Is That Just Me? - Richard Hammond
by markos9 I'm a big Top Gear fan. I enjoy watching the antics of the three middle aged men, acting like twelve year olds, whilst driving exotic machinery and having adventures in faraway places: It makes for great television. When I saw that Richard Hammond, one of the presenters, had written a book, I bought a copy hoping to get some ... behind the scenes information on one of my favourite shows. In this, at least, I was not (too) disappointed. Hammond does relate some fascinating stories from his time on Top Gear, and the antics of himself, James May, and Jeremy Clarkson. Other Top Gear fans will enjoy these bits. One of the criticisms often levelled at Top Gear is that some of the stunts are staged. Some are, and some aren't. Watching the show and trying to guess whether the situation the terrible trio find themselves in just happened, or was planned to the 'nth' degree is something I enjoy. One of the most (in)famous Top Gear 'adventures' involved a tour across the USA in three old bangers. Upon reaching Alabama, the team decided (presumably because it would make good television), to try to get each other killed. They each painted slogans on each other's cars. These included: 'Country Music is Rubbish' 'NASCAR Sucks' 'Hillary for President' and, 'Man Love Rules OK' These statements were designed to drive any red blooded red neck into a murderous fury: it worked only too well. Watching the three of them pelted with stones and chased by a gang of gun toting locals was hilarious, but I was unsure whether it had been staged or not. Well, according to Hammond, it wasn't. The team were genuinely shocked at the response they got and honestly in fear of their lives. Hammond's description of the episode makes very good reading and gave me a genuine insight into the world of Top Gear. There are several other gems in this book, too, such as their time on the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah, racing three 'muscle cars' across an ancient ocean bed. Hammond relates this story with real emotion. It has been a dream of his, for many years, to race here, and Top Gear paid him to do it. Reading this chapter gives the reader a peek into Hammond's mind as he shares quite a private moment with us. Unfortunately, despite the good bits, there is a lot wrong with this book. When planning it, collating various episodes in his life to make up the various chapters, he appears to have decided to have a link to try to make them connect together. The link he chose is that, before writing the book, he was approaching forty. This tenuous link is quite clumsily used. Hammond tells a story, then inserts that he realises that he's 'getting on a bit'. A bit later, he mentions he's nearly middle aged. The fact that he mentions this often, during the book, does not mean that his separate episodes are cleverly linked. Quite the opposite, as the constant 'I'm nearly forty, you know' statements quickly become irritating. Another problem is that the book is very boring in parts. Away from the mayhem of the Top Gear tales, Hammond struggles to say anything interesting. The chapter on his health problems (kidney stones and appendicitis, not his terrible 300mph crash) is, for anyone remotely squeamish, far too detailed, yet delivered in such a flat way that it's not easy to feel any sympathy for his suffering. His visit to the largest telescope in the world, on Mauna Kea in Hawaii held some promise for me, as an astronomy fan. His description of ascending the 14,000 foot mountain, battling oxygen starvation and the cold, and seeing the almost lunar-like landscape of volcanic rock set the scene for what I hoped would be a fascinating chapter. Sadly it was not to be. Having described his journey, poked fun at the staff for being weird, the chapter ended! No descriptions of the workings of the monster telescope or hints of cutting edge science. Reading Hammond's book it sounds as if he got to the top and came straight back down again. The staff must have thought he was a bit weird for doing that! The poor structure to the book and its tenuous link ('did you know I'm nearly forty?'), make it appear pointless. It's almost as if Hammond decided that writing a book (or getting someone to do it for him) was the next box he needed to tick. Well, he's done it, and can tick the box, but I suspect he's not happy with the result. In summary, this is not a good book. If you're a Top Gear fan, the tales of 'Hamster', 'Captain Slow' and 'Jezza' may be of some interest, but the irritation of Hammond's writing style and the boringness of the chapters away from the TV show let this book down. If you want a book written by a Top Gear presenter, get something by Jeremy Clarkson. Finally, a couple of tips for Richard Hammond in case he reads this review (unlikely, but you never know): Richard, if you wrote the book yourself, you need help. Read some of Dooyoo's crowned reviews. See how they have structure: a start, middle, and an end. You could learn from this. If you did not write this yourself, sack your ghost writer! The book is available from Amazon for £9.27. Read the complete review |
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On The Edge - Richard Hammond
by katykicker I purchased 'On The Edge' by Richard Hammond in paperback form the very day it was released as I had been eagerly awaiting it and I just cannot believe that I have not thought about reviewing this book until now. The version that I have is a 309 page paperback that is available from Amazon.co.uk for £5.99 which is a very ... reasonable price. I have actually read through my copy several times now and it's a book that I am sure I will thoroughly enjoy reading again in the future as it's firmly a part of my 'keep' pile now. Plot: This book is an autobiography by Richard Hammond who is a TV presenter on BBC2 show 'Top Gear' and covers the period in his life from birth up until dealing with his recovery from a jet-powered dragster crash at speeds of around 300mph that he managed to survive. My Opinion: This book is fairly well constructed and talks you through the very interesting life of Richard Hammond. It is lovely to learn more about him, his life & his family and you really can feel the love for them shining throughout this book. Everything is well explained and while some of his memories are very personal and maybe not everyones cup of tea it is wonderful to hear him talking so vividly about his life and things that he almost lost forever after his terrible accident. I loved reading the part about his accident in particular because of knowing that he had made it through the other side and it was very interesting to read his take on the serious brain injury that he suffered and how his wonderful wife helped him to deal with everything. The book was very interesting and I was gripped throughout and finished this in just a few days. The book was short enough to only take a couple of days yet long enough to contain all the interesting things about his life that you could ever want to know. I really did feel that I learned a lot more about Richard Hammond whilst reading this book and it was informative, funny, witty and interesting all at the same time. Overall I was very impressed with the quality of this book and I loved the addition of some pictures. There were just a few pages of pictures so not enough that they were trying to fill the book up with something, anything, just to make it appear bigger. The main part of this book that really shone through for me was the love that Richard has for his family and how at the end of the book he still had a fair way to go to become his 'old self' which I don't think he will ever really return to based on what I have seen on TV of him over the last few years. I will be reading this book again in the future no doubt and everytime I have read it I've picked up something different from it and have thoroughly enjoyed the changing turns of this book and how his life has had so many interesting parts to it that I would never have imagined before when I just saw him as a Top Gear presenter. The paperback version of this book is available from Amazon.co.uk for £5.99 which is a very reasonable price, however, you may be able to pick this up cheaper elsewhere now as it's been a very popular book. Read the complete review |
Hammond, Richard Biography |
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1 review Genre: Biography / Author: Richard Hammond / Hardcover / 272 Pages / Book is published 2009-10-05 by Weidenfeld & Nicholson |
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1 review Genre: Biography / Author: Richard Hammond / Hardcover / 304 Pages / Book is published 2008-09-18 by Weidenfeld & Nicolson |
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15 reviews Genre: Biography / Author: Richard Hammond / Hardcover / 310 Pages / Book is published 2007-09-20 by Weidenfeld & Nicolson General - Gripping account by Richard Hammond of life before and after his terrifying high-speed car crash. |
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