Product Description

Richard Hammond is one of our most in-demand and best-loved television presenters. On September 20, 2006, he suffered a serious brain injury following a high-speed car crash, and the nation held its breath. On the Edge is his compelling account of life before and after the accident and an honest description of his year of recovery, full of drama and incident. It is also, perhaps, his explanation of why, as a married man and father of two young daughters, he was prepared to risk all by strapping himself to the front of a jet engine with the power of eleven Formula One cars. A daredevil and a petrolhead long before his association with Top Gear, Richard tells the story of his life as an adrenalin junkie, from the small boy showing off with ridiculous stunts on his bicycle to the adolescent with a near-obsessive attraction to speed and the smell of petrol. After a series of jobs in local radio, he graduated to television and eventually to Top Gear, one of the world's most popular shows, upgrading his car with each step up the ladder. His insights into the personalities, the camaraderie and, of course, the stunts for which Top Gear has become famous make compulsive reading. It was whilst filming for Top Gear, driving a jet-powered dragster at speeds over 300mph, that a tyre burst and the car left the track and rolled over, burying him in the earth. He was airlifted to hospital and hovered near death for several days. His wife Mindy tells the story of the anxious hours and days of watching and waiting until he finally emerged from his coma. In an extraordinarily powerful piece of writing, she and Richard then piece together the stages of his recovery as his shattered mind slowly reformed, leaving him sometimes lucid and plausible, sometimes confused and angry, and often exhausted. The final chapter recounts his return home and his triumphant reappearance in front of the cameras.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2629 in Books
• Published on: 2007-09-20
• Released on: 2007-09-20
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 310 pages

Synopsis
Richard Hammond is one of our most in-demand and best-loved television presenters. On September 20, 2006, he suffered a serious brain injury following a high-speed car crash, and the nation held its breath. On the Edge is his compelling account of life before and after the accident and an honest description of his year of recovery, full of drama and incident. It is also, perhaps, his explanation of why, as a married man and father of two young daughters, he was prepared to risk all by strapping himself to the front of a jet engine with the power of eleven Formula One cars. A daredevil and a petrolhead long before his association with Top Gear, Richard tells the story of his life as an adrenalin junkie, from the small boy showing off with ridiculous stunts on his bicycle to the adolescent with a near-obsessive attraction to speed and the smell of petrol. After a series of jobs in local radio, he graduated to television and eventually to Top Gear, one of the world's most popular shows, upgrading his car with each step up the ladder. His insights into the personalities, the camaraderie and, of course, the stunts for which Top Gear has become famous make compulsive reading.It was whilst filming for Top Gear, driving a jet-powered dragster at speeds over 300mph, that a tyre burst and the car left the track and rolled over, burying him in the earth.

He was airlifted to hospital and hovered near death for several days. His wife Mindy tells the story of the anxious hours and days of watching and waiting until he finally emerged from his coma. In an extraordinarily powerful piece of writing, she and Richard then piece together the stages of his recovery as his shattered mind slowly reformed, leaving him sometimes lucid and plausible, sometimes confused and angry, and often exhausted. The final chapter recounts his return home and his triumphant reappearance in front of the cameras.

About the Author
Richard Hammond is internationally famous for co-presenting Top Gear over the last 4 years with Jeremy Clarkson; he also presented Brainiac: Science Abuse on Sky 1, Should I Worry About...? on BBC 1 and Time Commanders on BBC 2. His Richard Hammond's 5 O'Clock Show was shown every weekday on ITV1 during January and February 2006, and he is a team captain on the BBC2 quiz show, Petrolheads. He writes a weekly column in The Daily Mirror. His crash whilst filming for Top Gear in September 2006 made him a household name.

Customer Reviews

Survival of the Fittest
Richard Hammond covers the daredevil stunts of his childhood with a humour that he obviously took into his adult life. But the book isn't so much about his life as about the aftermath of his horrendous crash in a jet car whilst filming for the Top Gear television programme. The fact that Top Gear pushes the boundaries of acceptable motoring or that at times it can be irresponsible and purely for entertainment is probably not for discussion here. Hammond is part of that set-up and the fact that he drove a jet car could smack of commerciality gone too far.

As we all know he suffered severe brain damage from the crash. This book deals primarily with the build-up to the crash and the aftermath seen both through Hammond's eyes and those of his wife Mindy. Whilst Hammond was trying to pick up the pieces of his life and dealing with the problems of recuperating from brain damage, Mindy was trying to carry the burden of the family whilst giving him a solid base for his recovery. This is an overwhelming story of survival and return to fitness that at one point didn't seem possible. It is about the triumph of the human spirit. It is well written and an enjoyable read although I found the almost pathological need to avoid the Media slightly surprising given that Hammond himself operates within that field.

An excellent read
What a fantastic book. I really couldn't put it down. It had me laughing and crying, sometimes on the same page. Whovever said they couldn't decide whether it was good or not obviously missed the point completely. Maybe there were too many big words and not enough pictures. A real story about real people and it still has a happy ending. Excellent

Not what i was expecting... and all the better for it....
When i bought this book, I was, i am ashamed to say, expecting a rushed to be published 'celebrity' style 'cash in' following Richard's horrific Jet Car crash in 2006. The title itself was almost enough to put me off. I thought it would be a 'look at all the great stuff i have done on Top Gear' account. But instead, what i found was one of the most frank, open and honest accounts of life, love and recovery that I have ever read.

The more i read, the more i realised that the title was not about his 'On the edge' exploits with Jeremy and James, but his recovery from the accident and being literally on the edge of existing and knowing who he was, not as a TV presenter, but as himself, as Richard Hammond, the family man who loves his wife and family and the long road back from that edge.

As somebody who also enjoys sport and takes part in what some would consider 'risk' activities, the part where Richard describes his realisation that despite his best efforts the car was out of control, and he had calmly resigned himself that would be it, the end of his life touched me deeply. It found me questioning myself if that is how it would be for me, if i were in a similar situation.

Richard goes into detail about the guilt he felt, and still feels to have survived, when others haven't from lesser accidents. The book recalls the re-programming of him as a person, the re-understanding of his life, his apologies and the support he received are all detailed here. This is not a rose tinted story with a happily ever after ending. This is a warts and all account shared between Richard and his wife, of his behaviour, habits and feelings after the accident. It is all here, right down to the toilet trips and the cigarette breaks.

Ignore the cynics, this is a good read, an enjoyable behind the mask account of a road to recovery, and one that i hope will inspire and provide hope to many others.