In the early nineties, Jeremy Clarkson had outgrown Top Gear (or so he thought) and embarked upon making several other television series, culminating, at the end of that decade, with his own chat-show. Most interesting of these was Motorworld and the book based on the show is probably Clarkson's best written work.The show ran for two series and in each episode, Clarkson would visit a country (or, in a couple of cases, a smaller entity) and use that nation's relationship with cars to explore elements of their collective psyche. Of course, the author is famously full of bombast, hyperbole and inconsistency but in many instances these programs did prove to be at least slightly revelatory and go beyond the stereotypes so lovingly cherished by the British.The book follows the two series (and one special) pretty faithfully and devotes one chapter apiece to Japan, Vietnam, Detroit, Iceland, Italy, India, Monaco, Cuba, Switzerland, Australia, Texas, Dubai and the United Kingdom. Clarkson has long been one of Britain's premier columnists: his writing is superb and, famously, even his car reviews are more contemporary commentary. This format works for the simple reason that it gives him the opportunity to write longer essays on a specific subject (it's reassuring that his prose can adapt to a longer format so well). All of his trademark flippancy and humour are evident but he writes with a more sustained focus than elsewhere.When the BBC published the first edition of this book, in 1996, however, they also chose to include four columns (first published in a variety of publications) presenting some of the antics filmed in Extreme Machines. With a considerably narrower focus than Motorworld this program had a much smaller audience and since it was not first broadcast until after this book was published the intention was obviously to market the series. Subsequent editions have, of course, maintained these extras but they tend to detract from the rest of the volume; feeling as tacked-on as they are.Overall then, anyone who enjoys the author's more recent, column-based, output would certainly find a lot to enjoy here and fans of humorous travel writing would be equally satisfied. This book may well prove to be Clarkson's magnum opus; presumably he still has a fair few books to write but, for now, this is his best.
Clarkson's Mottorworld is something else. From reading 1984 I went straight to cars. It's a huge change but nice to not think for a moment."Extremy funny" - Daily Telegraph says, and it truelly is.Clarkson is just as witty as in Top Gear and I just love the way he describes things. Motorworld is quiet a blast there is no denying, and with all the insides about certain places it makes you want to go and visit it too; From the Gull Foss in Iceland to Monaco. It not only gets you in the mood to watch Tokyo drift again, no I now know where Paddigton Bear came from. But it's mainly all about motors, and for me that's fine too - I like it. It was written +/- 10 years ago of course but it was still a great read and I am glad someone left it at the hotel, because it made me sad that I was out of books. (I am again tho..)So quiet frankly, Clarkson's Motorworld deserves 4 stars in its own genre. Adored it! Can't wait to read more.
