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A review by grace_hepworth
The World According to Clarkson by Jeremy Clarkson
1.0
I have had this book on my shelf for a very long time, after initially knicking it from my Mum. Never in that time had I felt the need to open the book and check the format, as I had always naively believed that it was an Autobiography. After finding out it was simply a collection of his articles for the Sunday Times, I was disappointed but ploughed on.
These articles are from 2001 to 2003 which presented two issues for me;
1. I was between the ages of 5 and 8 at that time and therefore unaware of the current affairs - appauling, I know. That meant that I didn't know about a lot of the events & happenings that were referenced and ended up a little lost at times
2. Attitudes were different. The way he talked about certain things didn't sit right with me in the 2020 landscape. For example; suggesting that Britain wasn't sure about it's identity anymore because of the growing number of Mosques, referring to heterosexual sex between a man and a woman as 'proper sex' and describing graduates from Brunel as 'brown and yellow faces'. In addition to this, he enjoyed discussing women's appearances, the size of their breasts or them being 'too fat' for certain clothing items.
Most of the time, in the present, I quite like Jeremy Clarkson. So please don't think I've picked up this book just to criticise and complain about him. There were some points when I found his articles funny. I even find him funny in the present day, however you cannot get away from the fact that he is an upper middle class, rich, white male with some very stereotypical views.
I won't be picking up the rest of his books - mostly because I don't like the format. But if he ever comes out with an actual autobiography, I would definitely consider picking it up.
These articles are from 2001 to 2003 which presented two issues for me;
1. I was between the ages of 5 and 8 at that time and therefore unaware of the current affairs - appauling, I know. That meant that I didn't know about a lot of the events & happenings that were referenced and ended up a little lost at times
2. Attitudes were different. The way he talked about certain things didn't sit right with me in the 2020 landscape. For example; suggesting that Britain wasn't sure about it's identity anymore because of the growing number of Mosques, referring to heterosexual sex between a man and a woman as 'proper sex' and describing graduates from Brunel as 'brown and yellow faces'. In addition to this, he enjoyed discussing women's appearances, the size of their breasts or them being 'too fat' for certain clothing items.
Most of the time, in the present, I quite like Jeremy Clarkson. So please don't think I've picked up this book just to criticise and complain about him. There were some points when I found his articles funny. I even find him funny in the present day, however you cannot get away from the fact that he is an upper middle class, rich, white male with some very stereotypical views.
I won't be picking up the rest of his books - mostly because I don't like the format. But if he ever comes out with an actual autobiography, I would definitely consider picking it up.