Wow I never thought I would say it but a story like this should be listened too! Most people that have an interest in car’s, or an interest in humor watch Top Gear and listen to the high jinks that Jeremy Clarkson , James May, and the “Hamster” Richard Hamond get up to. We all laugh along with the stupid stunts they pull, and cringe at some of their less than politically correct comments.
However we see what they want us to see. We know them for what they want us to know them for. Jeremy Clarkson dam the tree huggers petrol rules, James May it’s not how quickly you get there it’s how, and Richard Hamond does my bum look good in this (flash white[ned] teeth).
Yet when the “Hamster” Richard Hamond crashed we were surprised. We thought typical Top Gear stunt! Bumped head, sore neck, and a couple of weeks of complaining.
No, this was serious. We are talking Air Ambulance, we are talking front page! We are talking about a person we think we know. All of a sudden we paid attention. Maybe because we always pay attention to bad news, but for me I paid attention because I felt I knew this person. Okay it was via my TV but he was young, energetic, he was what I wanted to be.
The book provides an insight in to Richard’s past, from Richard’s point of view of course. Richard walks us through the time leading up to the accident, and talk us though the accident itself, from his point of view.
What made this for me was Mindy’s (Richard’s wife) reading. She describes the accident from her point of view, and from the childrens.
You can hear the emotion in her voice. It’s obviously something that she doesn’t like to think about, but does. The relationship the two have and the love she has for him is laid bare and it really does give the story some grounding. When Mindy talks about Richard’s recovery you can really sense a team effort, but not a BBC corporate one, not a TV or PR one. You can see a relationship that is founded on something that is a lot more human.
I would give this one 4/5 but say listen to the audio book rather than read it.
