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Jeremy Clarkson
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I Know You Got Soul: Machines with That Certain Something Hardcover – 28 Oct. 2004

by Jeremy Clarkson (Author)
4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 230 ratings
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A Ferrari F40 has it, a Lexus hasn't. Concorde's got it, but not an Airbus. And while Titanic had it in spades, the Queen Mary 2 must have been in the wrong queue. Soul. Some machines matter to us while others are, well, just machines.

In his own inimitable way, Jeremy Clarkson tells the gripping stories of the planes, trains and automobiles that inspire us; and of the geniuses and visionaries that built them.

Lavishly illustrated, I Know You Got Soul is the perfect Christmas present for boys of all ages.

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  1. Print length
    288 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Michael Joseph
  4. Publication date
    28 Oct. 2004
  5. Dimensions
    20 x 2.4 x 25.1 cm
  6. ISBN-10
    0718147294
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0718147297
  8. See all details
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Product description

About the Author

Jeremy Clarkson is a British writer and broadcaster who specialises in motoring. He began his career on the Rotherham Advertiser and since then has written for the Sun and The Sunday Times. He is best known for his roles as presenter of TV shows Top Gear and, more recently, The Grand Tour.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Michael Joseph; First Edition - 1st Impression (28 Oct. 2004)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 288 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0718147294
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0718147297
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 20 x 2.4 x 25.1 cm
  • Customer reviews:
    4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 230 ratings

About the author

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Jeremy Clarkson

Jeremy Clarkson

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Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5 out of 5
230 global ratings

Customers say

Customers find the book brilliantly funny and interesting. They also say the content is very funny.

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ContentReadability
5 customers mention ‘Content’5 positive0 negative

Customers find the book very interesting, enjoyable, and insightful. They also say it's brimming with facts, easy to read, and has different subjects to talk about. Readers also mention that the book gives them pause for thought and is entertaining and informative.

"...the sometimes flippant and provocative nature of his writing its always enjoyable, gives you pause for thought and is entertaining and informative...." Read more

"...and once finished it would be well recommended to others as an exciting read. Many thanks doing business with you." Read more

"...story filled with his own opinions which I found both funny and very interesting." Read more

"...This book is enjoyable. I love it." Read more

5 customers mention ‘Readability’5 positive0 negative

Customers find the book brilliantly funny, love the writing style and humour of the author, and find it fun to read.

"I love the writing style and humour of the author. i have read 3 books in total. great for the beach" Read more

"...a great little story filled with his own opinions which I found both funny and very interesting." Read more

"...who makes comic writing effortless and this is probably one of his funniest books. He’s also a brilliant broadcaster. It’s not fair. I hate him." Read more

"...Full of laughter and humour." Read more

Top reviews from United Kingdom

Soul King
5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliantly funny!
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 27 March 2021
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Classic Clarkson! Have all his books, constantly reduced to tears of laughter. He says what we all want to say but can't get away with.
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Dimitris
4.0 out of 5 stars Fun to read
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 25 July 2013
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I love the writing style and humour of the author. i have read 3 books in total. great for the beach
One person found this helpful
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Katrina
5.0 out of 5 stars I've read most of j clarkson books and this is one of my favourites.always insightful, brimming with facts and Jeremy's sometime
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 29 April 2017
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Loved it! I've read most of Jo's books a nd this is a favourite. Despite the sometimes flippant and provocative nature of his writing its always enjoyable, gives you pause for thought and is entertaining and informative. Thank you jeremy!
One person found this helpful
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Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Claarkson - His soul is a great read!
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 14 May 2016
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A great read so far and am gradually working my way through it but am extremely happy with the purchase and once finished it would be well recommended to others as an exciting read. Many thanks doing business with you.
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Rabba the Hutt
5.0 out of 5 stars Interesting and Funny
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 6 January 2014
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This is a great book for anyone who enjoys Jeremy's style of humour. Behind each machine that Jeremy describes is a great little story filled with his own opinions which I found both funny and very interesting.
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Andrew Ives
3.0 out of 5 stars I read the Kindle sample even though I have the paper version
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 26 August 2013
Kindle sample:
Oh dear. I generally like Top Gear and even Clarkson in moderate doses, but this book is just not very good, nor very funny. The Kindle sample is very short (perhaps Penguin didn't think it wise that you saw too much before buying the book?), quite expensive and in a large font too. All you get is the Concorde bit which was so underwhelming, I didn't race to my bookshelf to find the real book. I could probably read this book in 2hrs flat and I guess Clarkson spent only slightly longer writing it. Move along. Nothing to see here. 2/5

Whole paperback:
A very easy-going, spaced out kind of a read that will last you no time at all. As JC fairly sprints through a varied array of topics from cars to steam trains to spacecraft, omitting plenty of commas, there are a few occasions to smirk and a few historical facts and figures which might cause you to say "Well I never!" very quietly to yourself in a Top Trumps kind of way. The colour plates in the middle are a welcome addition although some bespoke captions might've been nicer. I guess the thrust of this book is to start a laddish pub debate along the lines of "of course, the Spitfire is better than the Hoover Dam" which would descend into "my Kia van is better than your Tefal toaster" - a nonsensical debate, the folly of which is all too apparent even while you're reading this book. This book might just have scraped a 7/10 from me had it not been for the casual mention of JC enjoying a good scattergun pheasant shoot near the end. For that, I'm marking him down another point. 6/10.
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Steven
4.0 out of 5 stars Bags of fun
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 25 May 2013
This is a light and entertaining read. Clarkson's voice leaps off the page due to his accessible, easygoing writing style and his fondness for witticism's. His thoughts on these majestic machines are fun to read and chapters are presented in the same quickfire manner as his other books. The chapters aren't in any order so you can read about the Spitfire one day and the Alfa 166 the next. Some reviewers seem to have completely missed the point and appear to have expected some kind of text book; the idea that you'd pick this up for research is nonsense. Get a life guys!
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Doctor Owl
5.0 out of 5 stars I laughed so much the tears were running down my leg
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 20 September 2015
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Clarkson is a consummate author who makes comic writing effortless and this is probably one of his funniest books. He’s also a brilliant broadcaster. It’s not fair. I hate him.
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Top reviews from other countries

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JRS
5.0 out of 5 stars Highly entertaining.
Reviewed in Canada on 5 October 2023
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As with all of Jeremy Clarkson's books : well written and worth every dollar.
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Peder Wise
5.0 out of 5 stars I know you got soul
Reviewed in the United States on 31 May 2013
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Being a fan of Top Gear the book is more or less an affirmation of Clarkson's opinions. The book was light enjoyable read and completely understand where he comes from on discussing machines and the life they had. I would reccomend it to anyone who is fascinated with history and a touch of the Clarkson sarcasim.
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Tomster
5.0 out of 5 stars Maschinen mit dem gewissen Etwas
Reviewed in Germany on 6 April 2011
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Ein feines Buch für alle Freunde schöner Technik und Clarksons berühmt-berüchtigten Humors. Hier wird auf sehr unterhaltsame und informative Weise von Maschinen berichtet, die nach Meinung des Autors eine "Seele" haben müssen: die Concorde, Zeppeline, der Hoover Dam, die Yamato, Rolls-Royce, die AK-47 und vielen mehr. Ihre Beseeltheit gründet sich nicht selten auf ihre Fehler, die Grandiosität ihres Scheiterns und wieviele Seelen sie forderten. Wer sagt, Maschinen seien nicht romantisch?
Einziger Kritikpunkt: Da fehlt doch noch! ... Harley-Davidson, der Fender Precision, der Imac G3, der 2CV, die Honda Super Cub... (bitte vervollständigen:-)
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Alan C.
4.0 out of 5 stars One of Clarkson's best.
Reviewed in the United States on 3 April 2012
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278 pages long and first published in 2004, Jeremy Clarkson's- in this case hardcover- book "I Know You Got Soul" is a lighthearted, but surprisingly meaningful, book on 21 machines and why Clarkson thinks they matter more than most. As some other reviewers have noted, that's about it. This book makes pleasantly light reading, and it certainly could not have been that difficult to think up as an idea for a book. But I found it to be an interesting and meaningful, as well as humorous book. Clarkson overdoes it at times, and he certainly goes on longer than he might really need to. But he gets his point across pretty well in the end. Overdone at times maybe, but that's Clarkson for you and, indeed, many of the machines he writes about also. The Rolls-Royce Phantom is certainly bigger and far more expensive than a car *needs* to be. But a car isn't meant to be a toaster. Rolls-Royce understands that better than most. Interestingly, at times Clarkson will not just talk about the individual machine, but its category as a whole. With the biggest battleship ever created, the "Yamato", Clarkson talks about the battleship plenty as well. However, in the case of the "SS Great Britain", he strays a bit too far from the specific machine and talks perhaps a little too much about the category it comes from. Even there, though, Clarkson recovers at the end. Here's the machines he reviews:

1. The Concorde
2. The Rolls-Royce Phantom
3. The Riva
4. The Millenium Falcon
5. The Flying Boat
6. The SS Great Britain
7. Arthur (the satellite dish)
8. The Zeppelin
9. The Flying Scotsman
10. The B-52
11. The Hoover Dam
12. The Aircraft Carrier
13. Alfa Romeo 166
14. The Blackbird
15. The Submarine
16. The Space Shuttle
17. Ford GT40
18. The Yamato
19. The Spitfire

My favorite sections were on the Phantom, the Millenium Falcon, the AK-47, the Yamato, and the Spitfire. Battleships, Clarkson points out, really never did do much themselves, but they provided tremendous benefit to morale on their side, and essentially sailed around making the people who paid for them feel good. The Phantom does the same sort of thing. The Millenium Falcon is one of the most iconic machines in history, real or fictional, while the AK-47 has been proclaimed by the History Channel among others as the greatest combat rifle of all time. And the Spitfire?

"You had Mr. Churchill on the radio explaining that we'd never surrender, and above you had the Spitfire, and you couldn't help thinking: Yes, we can win this thing. Possibly, just possibly, the Spitfire is the greatest machine ever made."

If that hasn't sold you on this book, nothing else will.
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Dark Alley Dan
3.0 out of 5 stars A witty introduction to soulful machinery, but only an introduction.
Reviewed in Canada on 14 March 2011
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I've long felt that some machinery is "soulful". No one can doubt that T.E. Lawrence's Brough Superiour, or a BMW R75 salvaged from a barn in Russia, or one of Hendrix's Stratocasters are something more than conglomerations of machine parts. There is a certain unquantifiable "something" to objects like these that sensitive people appreciate.

Despite understanding that Clarkson isn't known for his sensitivity, I bought this book hoping for an insightful look at what the "something" is that makes some machines more than the sum of their parts. Didn't happen. What I got was a stroll through "Jezzer's Favorite Things".

He likes the Spitfire, the Concorde, the Zeppelin, etc. He provides insightful reasons for liking these things, and I would have to agree with the vast majority of what he said. However, there's little real depth here. It is an entertaining light stroll through some good history, delivered with his usual style (which I enjoy very much) but if you're looking for a philosphical tratise on "animus in the machine", this isn't it.

Bottom line - great reading in the biffy, not soon appearing on the reading list for Philosophy 354.
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