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: #3077 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

Remarkable Love Story
What impressed me about this book was the sheer devotion of Richard and Mindy to each other and their children. Yes this is a book about a man struggling to rehabilitate after a horrific brain injury, and the tale of a man 'off the telly', but it is more than that. It is about courage, hope and resilience in the face of really daunting odds. I was very moved by this story, which is not something I was expecting at all when I first picked it up.

It is simply written and honest about the ups and downs of a horrific time in this family's life. It's not earth shattering literature, but then anyone who was expecting it to be must be slightly deranged themselves.

What really touched me is the effort both Richard and Mindy made to acknowledge the help they have received along the way both professionally and from ordinary people, and the fact that despite the fact that this was a high profile story, they keep coming back to their connection with and understanding of ordinary people who have to go through things like this and worse, with a fraction of the help provided here.

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