Born to be Riled: The Collected Writings of Jeremy Clarkson - Hardcover

Clarkson, Jeremy

3.58

1,245 ratings by Goodreads

9780563551461: Born to be Riled: The Collected Writings of Jeremy Clarkson

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0563551461 ISBN 13: 9780563551461

Publisher: BBC Books, 1999

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This collection contains a selection of Jeremy Clarkson's journalism to date, from his "Top Gear" and "Sunday Times" articles. They transcend the framework of motoring to offer acute observations about people, places and the way we live.

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Review:

Jeremy Clarkson, the opinionated motoring journalist, has something to say on just about everything, not just cars, in this collection of his columns from both Top Gear Magazine and The Sunday Times.

Whether you love or loathe him, Born to be Riled makes for an entertaining and lively read as Clarkson vents his anger and frustration at, among other things, Sunday drivers, caravans and politicians. Even places are not safe from his poisonous tongue, with Surrey, Birmingham and Norfolk being on the receiving end of some particularly venomous rants.

Clarkson's views on cars and motoring make for interesting reading but do tend to speak to the more initiated enthusiast than the casual driver and analogies and comparisons are often lost on all but the most technically minded car fanatic.

However, Clarkson writes with joyous wit and even when his arguments seem a little shaky, you can't help but find yourself nodding in agreement or realising that he is riled by all the things in life that you are--being stuck behind a caravan on a country back road or the drink-driving laws in this country. In much the same way as Bill Bryson chronicles life's daily woes and pitfalls with a scathing sense of humour, so Clarkson speaks for a silent majority who are secretly incensed by a million and one things everyday of their lives, but are just a little too British to say anything.

In this book, Clarkson has become the common man's champion and when he is fighting for the cause with this much humour and wit, long may he remain in that position. --Jonathan Weir

From the Publisher:

Tall, Dark and Clarkson
Jeremy Clarkson gets a stack of letters from young people asking how they can nick his job, and his reply is always the same: forget about the driving, think about your writing. Television may have brought the fame, but the key to Britain’s most celebrated motoring journalist lies within the written word, and this book is the best of Clarkson on his home ground – bringing together the cream of his columns form Top Gear Magazine and the Sunday Times. Naturally we get his verdict on a whole spectrum of cars – from Ferraris to FSOs – with some leaving him drooling at their drop - dead presence, whilst others leave him wishing they would just drop dead.

Cars aside, these columns are also a record of his thoughts on motoring in general, thoughts which managed to enrage the whole of Norfolk, the housewives of Surrey, all caravan owners, Nissan Sunny drivers and both the chefs in Birmingham. Throughout you’ll find lashings of opinion, from his appalling predictions for the F1 season through to his full-bore attacks on politicians who blame the car enthusiast for every evil in society. Sometimes his arguments are strong and incisive, sometimes they’re as thin as an after dinner mint, but Born to be Riled remains throughout a joyful, mischievous and beautifully written record of one man’s extraordinary life on wheels.

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