- Paperback: 256 pages
- Publisher: Corinthian (6 May 2010)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 1906850186
- ISBN-13: 978-1906850180
- Product Dimensions: 19.6 x 12.8 x 2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
-
Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
172,294 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #53 in Books > Biography > Sport > Formula One & Other Motor Racing
| ||||||||||||||||||
 Trade In this Item for up to £0.70
Trade in Crashed and Byrned: The Greatest Racing Driver You Never Saw for an Amazon.co.uk gift card of up to £0.70, which you can then spend on millions of items across the site. Plus, get an extra £5 when you trade in books worth £10 or more until June 30, 2012. Trade-in values may vary (terms apply). Find more products eligible for trade-in.
|
Product details |
More About the Author
Product Description
Review
'One of the most extraordinary sporting autobiographies you are likely to come across.' DAILY TELEGRAPH 'Riveting.'FINANCIAL TIMES 'You won't be able to put it down.'THE TIMES 'One of the best racing books you'll read this decade.'AUTOSPORT 'An essential read ... brilliantly told.'OBSERVER 'Witty and shocking ... a must for anyone who has the constitution to handle it.'MOTOR SPORT MAGAZINE 'Incredibly entertaining'IRELAND AM 'A real pleasure and provides massive insight into what makes racers do what they do.'INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE 'Absolutely brilliant' RTAe 'I challenge you to put it down. It might just be the greatest book you've never read.'DAILY TELEGRAPH 'A remarkable, colourful, at times scarcely believable tale which unravels at a breakneck pace. You must buy this book.'F1 FANATIC
Review
"One of the most extraordinary sporting autobiographies you are likely to come across"
--This text refers to an alternate
Paperback
edition.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Browse and search another edition of this book.
Browse and search another edition of this book.
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
24 of 26 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is some journey!
Barely believable, 'Crashed and Byrned' somehow twists through the apposite worlds of grubby 1970's O'Connell street, the 1982 Las Vegas Grand Prix and a seedy mansion in drug addled Mexico. Why? Because Tommy Byrne was chasing his quest to make the motor racing world realise that he was the most naturally gifted racing driver of his generation (and that is no idle boast by the way). And what is more, this book does it in a kind of surreal innocence that would be quite at home in a Hunter S.Thompson yarn!
Tommy Byrne will generally only be known to racing people but his story is so unique that he and his adventures will be enjoyed by those who have never seen a motor race in their lives before. This story will surely become a classic alternative to the bland and colourless publications that modern sports stars often produce.
It wasn't so much that Tommy was anti establishment it was more like he created his own establishment and then whether it was his fault or not, trashed it in a bright haze of his own brilliance and confidence. This had an uncanny knack of rubbing people up the wrong way. Ron Dennis was one of these people, so was Ayrton Senna. Years before Eddie Irvine was getting a slap from the great Brazilian champion, another and more gifted urchin from the Emerald Isle was getting under Ayrton's skin! Put bluntly, if John Lydon and Phil Lynott had raised a bastard child that took up motor racing, then his name would have been Tommy Byrne.
The anecdotes are told in a fabulously honest and more often than not comic fashion. There is no self pity and no 'what ifs'. These are left to the reader, who by the end of it are likely to ask these questions quietly to themselves. His 'tell it, how he saw it' descriptions of situations and people are quite superb, brutally honest and tremendously funny. In these days of wretched PR sheen this book takes you back to an era when genius 'literally' stole. It's sports answer to 'The filth and the fury!'
Put together in a simple and effective way by Mark Hughes, who proves that he is as subtly adept at translating these unforgettable memories of racings greatest roguish lost talent' as he is of acutely detailing the weekly technical and strategic aspects of the current Grand Prix scene in Autosport magazine. Hughes also offers an oversight to Byrne's memories, dipping in to the likes of Gary Anderson and Ron Dennis himself, for a revisionist perspective twenty five years on from 'Hurricane Byrne.'!
Above all, it tells of an ambitious and talented young man who was fighting a desperate and constantly losing battle to be accepted by an elitist sport that even by the standards of the early 1980's found Tommy Byrne just too much of a risk. It cannot be recommended highly enough.
Barely believable, 'Crashed and Byrned' somehow twists through the apposite worlds of grubby 1970's O'Connell street, the 1982 Las Vegas Grand Prix and a seedy mansion in drug addled Mexico. Why? Because Tommy Byrne was chasing his quest to make the motor racing world realise that he was the most naturally gifted racing driver of his generation (and that is no idle boast by the way). And what is more, this book does it in a kind of surreal innocence that would be quite at home in a Hunter S.Thompson yarn!
Tommy Byrne will generally only be known to racing people but his story is so unique that he and his adventures will be enjoyed by those who have never seen a motor race in their lives before. This story will surely become a classic alternative to the bland and colourless publications that modern sports stars often produce.
It wasn't so much that Tommy was anti establishment it was more like he created his own establishment and then whether it was his fault or not, trashed it in a bright haze of his own brilliance and confidence. This had an uncanny knack of rubbing people up the wrong way. Ron Dennis was one of these people, so was Ayrton Senna. Years before Eddie Irvine was getting a slap from the great Brazilian champion, another and more gifted urchin from the Emerald Isle was getting under Ayrton's skin! Put bluntly, if John Lydon and Phil Lynott had raised a bastard child that took up motor racing, then his name would have been Tommy Byrne.
The anecdotes are told in a fabulously honest and more often than not comic fashion. There is no self pity and no 'what ifs'. These are left to the reader, who by the end of it are likely to ask these questions quietly to themselves. His 'tell it, how he saw it' descriptions of situations and people are quite superb, brutally honest and tremendously funny. In these days of wretched PR sheen this book takes you back to an era when genius 'literally' stole. It's sports answer to 'The filth and the fury!'
Put together in a simple and effective way by Mark Hughes, who proves that he is as subtly adept at translating these unforgettable memories of racings greatest roguish lost talent' as he is of acutely detailing the weekly technical and strategic aspects of the current Grand Prix scene in Autosport magazine. Hughes also offers an oversight to Byrne's memories, dipping in to the likes of Gary Anderson and Ron Dennis himself, for a revisionist perspective twenty five years on from 'Hurricane Byrne.'!
Above all, it tells of an ambitious and talented young man who was fighting a desperate and constantly losing battle to be accepted by an elitist sport that even by the standards of the early 1980's found Tommy Byrne just too much of a risk. It cannot be recommended highly enough.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is a no holds barred on how getting to Formula 1 was (and probably still is) if you do not have the financial backing required when Tommy raced. It also shows the snobbery of F1. By this I mean the rough, raw talent (with no financial budget) of a man against the might of the right and proper sponsership friendly corporate identity of McLaren. This book tells it how it was.
10 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Just extraordinary. What a fantastic read. If you could imagine an unlikely cross between Angela's Ashes and Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas with a loose motor racing backdrop, this is it. It has you in hysterics one moment, full of sadness the next. The most amazing sports biography I've ever read. In fact even if it was a work of fiction, it would still work. If you never buy another book again, you must buy this one.
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Flawed talent
In writing this book, Tommy Byrne reflects on his life and what might have been. I don't think that he is happy with how things have turned out - he still seems angry that he did... Read more
Published 2 months ago by Sport Nut
F1 History
Tommy Byrne was never F1 capable...that is why Ron Dennis dumped him !!!!
Tommy just a lazy dreamer...about a F1 career with any team. Read more
Tommy just a lazy dreamer...about a F1 career with any team. Read more
Published 3 months ago by alan
Arresting Tale Of The Greatest Lost Talent In Motor Racing
Tommy Byrne was a phenomenon. A humble Irish country-boy who seemed to have the world most glamorous sport at his feet. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Simon
Sex, Drugs, and the Road to Self Destruction from Formula 1
Byrne, a promising raw racing talent, who rose from a life of deprivation and a crime ridden background in Ireland to rise through the ranks of motor-sport to the promise of... Read more
Published 8 months ago by T. Wright
An excellent read, brilliant story
If you read on motorsport book this year, read Crashed and Byrned. Author Mark Hughes really captures Tommy Byrne's Irish turn of phrase beautifully. Read more
Published 17 months ago by AP
short & sharp
Very entertaining read of a non-success story. if you're a fan of motor racing it gives an insight to the b.s. that goes on and which todays media savvy stars subscribe. Maybe Mr. Read more
Published 20 months ago by shane
Great book! The best probably
This is probably the best motor racing autobiography i've read. It seems this man was destined for great things, and even had Senna worried! Really couldn't put it down. Great.
Published 21 months ago by Club Racer
An angry but often amusing autobiography
The book follows the life and racing career of Tommy Byrne, an Irish racing driver with plenty of raw driving talent but who due to his personality (it comes across as the primary... Read more
Published on 13 Mar 2010 by AK
A very different view of motor racing and F1
Excellent read - one of those books you have to read from start to finish. Tommy tells it like it was - albeit I think there are a lot of tales left untold here - but a sobering... Read more
Published on 2 Feb 2010 by Christopher Neely
A Penchant for Self-destruction
I find it difficult to rate this half biography, half autobiography.
I have a friend named Jackie who wrote and self-published a book about dogs. Read more
I have a friend named Jackie who wrote and self-published a book about dogs. Read more
Published on 20 Jan 2010 by John Pitchers
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
