As You Do - Richard Hammond

...well known across the country, as he became 1/3 of the Top Gear team.

I'm sure everyone has heard of Richard Hammond, not just from his TV show, but for the fact that he nearly died almost 2 years ago now in a high speed crash, which caused quite a bit of brain damage, and the whole country (well the people that liked him) were glued to the news trying to see if he was alright. He pulled through and last year released his book 'On ...
...be put off by this, as if you are a Top Gear fan you know what sort of travel Hammond will be talking about.

Chapters 1-3: In the first few chapters, it follows Richard mainly as he and the other two men get ready for their journey across to the North Pole. Hammond jokily goes on from the part where he says he can't say no and then says of course this journey had to be a race, public transport vs a car. However there was a problem, ... more

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Who is Richard Hammond?
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Born in Birmingham in 1969, Richard Hammond thought he found his calling when working for a few local radio stations, and then moved into television; it wasn't in 2002 that he finally became well known across the country, as he became 1/3 of the Top Gear team.

I'm sure everyone has heard of Richard Hammond, not just from his TV show, but for the fact that he nearly died almost 2 years ago now in a high speed crash, which caused quite a bit of brain damage, and the whole country (well the people that liked him) were glued to the news trying to see if he was alright. He pulled through and last year released his book 'On The Edge' which included his events up till the crash and then after he had recovered, but it was his wife Mindy's accounts from his crash and even till the day they were writing the book, about coping with a different bloke in their lives.

In Top Gear they take different challenges and see who can get their first. In this book which was released for Christmas this year, Hammond talks about different events that happened in 2007 to him and about Top Gear.

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The Plot
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(A plot for each chapter, don't worry it doesn't spoil anything)

The title of the book is 'As You Do- Adventures with Evel, Oliver and the Vice President of Botswana' so that shows you the great range of information that is included within the book. The book starts with Hammond telling us that he doesn't have the ability to say no, no matter what the situation he always finds himself saying yes and that's how he ends up in these weird situations. He also tells us about the theme of the book, which is travel, don't be put off by this, as if you are a Top Gear fan you know what sort of travel Hammond will be talking about.

Chapters 1-3: In the first few chapters, it follows Richard mainly as he and the other two men get ready for their journey across to the North Pole. Hammond jokily goes on from the part where he says he can't say no and then says of course this journey had to be a race, public transport vs a car. However there was a problem, the artic didn't have public transport; the only thing they had was a dog sleigh and of course when Jeremy got this into his head there was no stopping him.

Now was the talk about who would be taking the dog sleigh and who would be in the car, and of course, Hammond can't say no.

These chapters are my favourite throughout the book as they really did have me laughing out loud, you get to learn a bit more about the people behind the camera, which interests me as this is what I would like to do some time in my life, Hammond really goes into a lot of detail through these chapters, explaining how he bonded with some of the dogs but not others and how tiring it got.

Chapter 4: You Don't Need a Land Rover in Surrey: This is a chapter dedicated to my favourite ever episode of Top Gear, when they go to Africa to prove that you 'don't need to have a Land Rover in Surrey'. Hammond talks about not only the trip but the build up to the trip, including them looking through the African version of Auto Trader to find the cars that they would be using throughout the trip.

Hammond talks about seeing a yellow/green Opal Cadette in the Auto Trader and immediately falling in love with the car. When he got to Africa he affectionately called the car Oliver as I'm sure most of you already know. The rest of the chapter is told through Hammonds eyes about them seeing different parts of Africa including going on the salt plains and meeting the Vice President of Botswana.

A great chapter, very funny to read, but I got a bit bored I have to say, considering this is my favourite episode of Top Gear, delving that much into the cameramen and how they film it, got a bit bland into the book, as you want to know about Hammond, Clarkson and May not the cameramen as these are the people who make you watch the show.

Chapter 5 & 6: These chapters are called an 'Odd Week Part 1 & 2' the first chapter follows Hammond's opinions of the Amphibian cars that they made to travel and his opinions on who came up with it and making his car amphibian.

However it was Part 2 that I was waiting for, Hammond lives just around the corner from where I live and we were one of the worst effected places in the 2007 July floods. Hammond talks about driving from London to Cheltenham, Gloucestershire and finding that 19 miles away from home he cannot get any further, but considering that it was his daughters 4th birthday in the morning, he 'had to' get home.

Unlike normal people who would have sat in their cars and got home safely the next day and apologising to his daughter as daddy was stuck in 4 foot water, he decided to put on his running gear and run 19 miles home, so there's a chance that his wife would be telling his daughter that because he wanted to be home for his daughter's birthday, he drowned in 4 foot water, and considering Hammond's size this is possible.

I found this section almost quite selfish, even thought I wanted to read this part. You'll have to read it to understand what I mean.

Never Meet Your Heroes: The final chapter Hammond talks about meeting his hero Evel Knieval and finding out this guy who he idiolized for all of his childhood, wasn't the sort of man he was expecting and was almost disappointing. This section was good, but again I found it quite boring.

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The Book
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This book was given to me for Christmas and at first I was a bit disappointed with the cover, however it doesn't have a lovely picture of Hammond like it does on his On The Edge book, however when looking more closely it's a great cover.

It's a very greeny/blue cover and on the front cover is a picture of Hammond standing on grass but behind him is the North Pole with husky dogs sat there and above is a load of par gliders which the Bostwana flag on them. On the back is a picture of a rocket and a river where Hammond is standing in with Oliver.

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The Writing Style
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I noticed in Hammond's 'On the Edge' book that he was a brilliant writer, especially writing about such a personal experience. The memory that he has on him is amazing, he obviously has a diary as it'll be scary the amount of attention to detail he remembers, unless he makes it all up.

Throughout the book he talks about different things that have happened even the conversations he had during different sections of his life, I really can't fault him for his writing style or anything like that. He is just brilliant.

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The Pictures
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The pictures in the book are lovely, they show different points of the things he did in 2007, from the dogs he worked with in the Arctic expedition, from lovely pictures of Oliver and even him saving his friend in the July floods.

I always like these in a biography and Hammond doesn't disappoint, they are some great little pictures, but I think they're could have been more.

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Comedy
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This book was very funny, this is one good point that kept me intrigued for half of the book, the banter between Hammond, Clarkson and May is just brilliant but it's the banter between Hammond and the camera men which you don't see normally that had me in stitches, especially during the Arctic expedition, 12 o'clock at night, attempting to be as quiet as possible due to the fact I still share a room with my sister () I was very much struggling as it really as hilarious.

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Opinion on As You Do
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I really like Hammond, but I really didn't enjoy this book as much as I thought I would. His previous book On The Edge, was just about him growing up and his crash and him recovering, but this gives a lot of detail behind the show, and I have to say this wasn't for me. I enjoyed it through the first few chapters, learning how the show is filmed, but sometimes it just seemed like all he talked about was the camera crew, and it did become too much towards the end learning all of the names and nicknames of the cast and crew.

The book starts off brilliantly, I found myself laughing out loud during his Arctic explorations, however it got boring towards the time he talks about the Amphibian cars as by then, the other books I got for Christmas started to look a lot more interesting.

I think the main annoyance for me, is something that does annoy me about Hammond quite a bit when watching the TV show, yes he's adorable and funny, but the dangerous crap he pulls just for the sake of television, he talks about this a lot throughout the book, I nearly got eaten by an alligator but it made for good television, this is something that me and my mum talk about during the TV show, he has two little girls at home and he nearly died in 2006 and he's still off running through 4 feet worth of water and nearly getting frostbitten in the Arctic. It just seems a bit stupid sometimes.

I know he's probably seeing now as a second chance at living his life, but he should be more concerned with being there for his daughters, who he obviously adores, but he just comes off concerned more about making good television than staying alive.

It is a good read, well the first couple of chapters are, but I have to say, I don't know why this book was written, this is why I've given it quite a low rating, Hammond wrote On The Edge to show the world that yes he was fine, he went through all that but he recovered, however this book doesn't have much of a purpose, most of the information you get from watching the television, the only thing new you go get is him talking about the camera crew and his experience during the July 2007 floods, which just made me think he was quite selfish, even though he wrote it in there to show he did all that running for his daughter's birthday.

This book actually changed my opinion on the Hamster, I'll still think he's lovely however I will be looking at all of the little trips he does with my hands in front of my face, as you just know that he'll go out of his way to make sure that he makes 'good television' however risking your life for me and I know some other people isn't good television, especially when they are people I like.

I'm not saying slow down and stop all of these challenges, but at least make James May jump on the dog sleigh next time or at least think before running 19 miles in water up to his head (the rest of our shoulders). I think he's inspirational that he overcame the accident however he should be more careful for his family.

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Should you buy the book?
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I think you should make your own opinion, but I've seen one great review on this, most people have the same opinions as me that I can see at the moment, that you find him quite selfish during the book and it really should have been called 'The Cameraman's Story' written by Richard Hammond as he does ramble about all of the camera men behind the scenes of Top Gear.

Overall check out this book, but make sure that you don't pay too much on it and that you don't expect that it'll be as good as On The Edge which had me sobbing. I do recommend checking out On The Edge if you haven't already, it's a brilliant book, but As You Do pales in comparison. Not as good as it should have been.

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Details
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Pages: 296
Rating: 3 Stars
Recommend: No (Only if you get it cheap)

Hope this review helps. Such a shame it wasn't as good as On The Edge, if you haven't read that yet, read it.

(C) Kirsty 2009 

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