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Richard Hammond
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Media
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Audio Book
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Publisher | Orion | ||
ISBN | 9780752899022 | ||
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Audio Extract
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Reviewer
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Vicky
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Synopsis
The wry, honest and often hilarious chronicles of a very brave and clever TV presenter, Arctic Explorer and general drawer of the Short Straw. Moving quickly on from the devastating crash that nearly killed him he ranges widely over his life and times: a visit to Glastonbury with James May reminds of him of his early years of playing in a band and how and why he never quite made it as a rock star; the stunts and other perils that come his way like the TopGear North Pole race (why is it Richard who is out in the howling elements in a dog sled whilst the others are in the heated cab of an all-terrain vehicle?), Africa where he falls in love with and repatriates a stray car, and the US (once to be chased by Rednecks in middle America, the other in pursuit of his mad hero Evel Knievel); his passion for cars, what he owns and why and although he loves his wife why it is a toss-up whether he says hello to the wife or the cars first. Balancing home and family with a crazy, peripatetic working life (or not, sometimes), the hamster is well and truly back on the wheel.
Review
I thought I'd take things easy while I listened to Richard Hammond reading his book on audio and just do a little bit of hand sewing! How wrong I was! The more I laughed at his antics the faster I sewed!! My friend's quilt is getting put together rather fast!
Hammond's race to the North Pole against fellow presenters Jeremy Clarkson and James May is told from his point of view. The preparation he had to go through in training with the dogs and sledge and then the race itself, leads to some very very funny incidents which are very definitely laugh out loud moments. Hammond takes up nearly two of the three discs on his description, but he then leads us very niftily into Botswana where he meets Oliver his car for this adventure, including a rather graphic description of his river crossing! Having seen both of these Top Gear episodes I'm very pleasantly surprised at how visual his writing and reading of his book is and even if you haven't seen Top Gear it really doesn't matter just enjoy the audio.
To round of the three cd package Hammond tells us of his race by car and foot to get home for his daughter Willow's birthday through the floods last year, and then go on to rescue some friends from their flood devastated house. For all the fun exploits that he and his fellow presenters do, I found him to be very compassionate and understanding of people, his environment and animals.
This is an audio full of sunshine that I highly recommend.
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