Today is a strange day. Today is the sort of day where I need two strong cups of black coffee, just to function. (The lady in the coffee shop here starts making me a strong, black Americano as soon as she spots me in the queue.) Today is the sort of day where I find myself linking to The Sun.
Why? Because Jeremy Clarkson's account of his collegue Richard Hammond's recovery from an insanely high-speed car crash is a work of pure genius:
In the wee small hours of Thursday night, just 30 hours after what is almost certainly the world’s fastest ever car crash, Richard Hammond suddenly sat up in bed, opened his eyes and asked what had happened.
“You’ve been in a car accident,” I said. “Was I driving like a tw*t?” he asked, before getting out of bed and walking, shakily, to the lavatory.
Go on, read the rest.
Technorati Tags: car crash, cars, danger, jeremy clarkson, richard hammond, top gear, tv
September 25, 2006 11:38 PM | Reply
You see, it's all too easy to forget that Clarkson can be a superb writer. I know, because I spent too many of my formative years reading his stuff in Performance Car magazine. It genuinely was the first stuff in the mag I ever read when a new issue arrived.
How I wish he'd go back to that, instead of just blithering on in a way that adds nothing to debates he (often) shouldn't be involved in, and does little more than deliberately wind up people who are all too easy to wind up.
He is capable of excellent journalism – his TV programme about Brunel was excellent, as was his Who Do You Think You are – so, Jeremy, please go back to it.
It's just a shame it took a near-fatal accident to your co-presenter to make you find your skills again.
September 26, 2006 9:26 AM | Reply
This piece is certainly a cut above the normal lazily provacative material he's been churning out of late, certainly. The smoothness with which he switches emotional tone is really cleverly done, and I do wish we saw more of that from him.
October 2, 2006 5:12 PM | Reply
Wow. That's a really moving piece.