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  • Jenson Button

  • Life to the Limit
  • By: Jenson Button
  • Narrated by: Jack Hawkins
  • Length: 8 hrs and 21 mins
  • 4.6 out of 5 stars (1,238 ratings)
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Jenson Button

By: Jenson Button
Narrated by: Jack Hawkins
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Summary

The full-length, in-depth and intimate autobiography from Jenson Button, one of Britain's greatest ever racing drivers.

Jenson Button is one of the finest racing drivers of his generation. His 17 years in Formula One have seen him experience everything the sport has to offer, from nursing duff cars round the track to winning world championships and everything in between. Here, Jenson tells his full story for the first time in his own honest, intelligent and eloquent style - from growing up as part of a motor-racing-mad family under the guidance of his father, John, to arriving at Williams as a fresh-faced 20-year-old to being written off as a playboy, distracted by the luxurious trappings of his lifestyle, and his fight back to the very pinnacle of his sport.

Jenson's world championship victory for the unsponsored and unfancied Brawn GP team is one of the most extraordinary against-the-odds sports stories of the century. Jenson's book lifts the lid on the gilded and often hidden world of Formula One. He reveals his relationships with some of the biggest names in the sport - Lewis Hamilton, Michael Schumacher and Fernando Alonso - as well some of the most colourful characters, such as Bernie Ecclestone, Ron Dennis, Frank Williams and serial winner Ross Brawn.

Above all he puts you right inside the cockpit, in the driving seat, travelling at over 200 miles per hour, battling the fear of death, showing you what happens when it goes wrong at high speed and allowing you to experience the euphoria of crossing the line first.

©2017 Jenson Button (P)2017 Bolinda Publishing Pty Ltd

What listeners say about Jenson Button

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Interesting listen but narrator needed guidance

On the whole, I really enjoy this insight into Button's life and career (so far). He gives a good amount of detail, without going too far, and for a longtime F1 fan it was good to hear more about what really goes on "behind-the-scenes".

Unfortunately, the narrator of this book clearly knows nothing about Formula 1 as he read everything far too literally, case in point saying "K.E.R.S" instead of "kers", and got the pronunciation of almost all the other drivers' names wrong, which for an F1 fan is very annoying to keep hearing them said wrong.

Surely they could have found a narrator who was also an F1 fan or spent 10 minutes with the guy explaining the pronunciations.

Even better, Button could have read it himself, which I think would have really added to the experience.

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19 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Decent book, good performance but...

...the narrator made a lot of pronunciation mistakes in drivers' names. Not a major problem, but it does pull the listener out of the story as it jars somewhat. Could have been easily avoided with a bit of prior research.

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16 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

brilliant!

surprisingly honest and written with emotion & a good insight into a very secretive sport

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

I miss characters like JB these days...

Loved this book.
OK, so I agree the narrator isn't an F1 fan, and some of the pronunciations of the drivers and circuits of the world are not what we are used to hearing during commentary and post race interviews (i.e. probably incorrect). But actually, I can't criticise Jack Hawkins too much, as when he wasn't getting a few pronunciations wrong I actually got drawn into the book and at times forgot it wasn't JB reading to me.

JB does a good job of detailing his love of motorsport from being a small boy, through Karting and into F1. I frequently found myself looking for highlight videos of races online as his descriptions of races made me want to watch them again. I think its easy to forget that races have 20+ people in them, and even when they are not battling for the points each driver has a story to tell.

The best part of the book was, for me, that JB is out of F1 now and clearly felt able to talk about some characters in ways he might not if he was still looking for drives. Suffice to say that he found some famous F1 personnel quite frustrating.

His Dad was clearly the inspiration behind everything, and (spoiler alert) the last epilogue explained beautifully why he's never returned to F1 - "not without Dad", quoting his father at an early Karting race when he was interviewed and said "it's my hobby - Jenson is just the pilot".

Funny, moving and interesting. A quality few hours. Thank you audible.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Great story, some dodgy pronunciations.

A great book that will appeal to Jenson Button fans and F1 enthusiasts alike.

The only Issue I have with this book is some really poor pronunciations of really well known F1 drivers. Please to the narrators of these audio books, do some research first please as it sounds so unprofessional when you’re just guessing and getting it completely wrong. It does spoil the story as you’re trying to imagine Jenson himself speaking the words only for him to mispronounce his team mates name for example. It’s only a small detail but it shouldn’t happen.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

One of the best driver bios I’ve heard

I’m a few years older than Jenson and I’ve followed every formula 1 race since the mid 80s. I have to admit I wasn’t really a fan whilst he was driving, for sure I respected him and I knew on his day he could be unbeatable but i was a die hard Schumacher fan and I’m still to choose a new driver to follow. This book really opened up some new perspectives on Jenson, I love how he describes his childhood experiences with lots of 80s references like knight rider or air wolf. I can relate to much of what he said and it kind of helped me get a sense of feeling of that fan to driver transition. Jenson is great at explaining technical bits without boring or losing my interest and he has some great tales about his partnerships with Lewis, Ralf, Fisi and Fernando. Of course there is more to learn about John Button who was known by all fans and to this day I can’t think of a better role model father and you can clearly feel Jenson’s loss.

The book is narrated by Jack Hawkins. He does s great job and his voice and mannerisms are reminiscent of Jenson but I can’t help thinking this is something Jenson should have voiced himself. He comes across natural on TV and I’m sure he could have delivered this reading very well.

I’ll be listening again to this Audio book very soon. I thoroughly recommend it to anyone with any kind of interest in racing

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Excellent biography

An excellent non controversial book. Best autobiography I have listed too in a while. Would have loved to have known more stuff about behind the scenes.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

For the F1 fans

Honestly, the only thing missing from this book is the fact that Jenson did not narrate it himself. If he had, it would have been perfect.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Do your research…

Yeah, I think I hate more than a biography that’s not read by the author is one that’s red by some new hasn’t bothered to do the research on how to pronounce the names of things in the story. As an avid, F1 fan, the mispronunciations of names and technical terms that I know so well really became annoying after a while. Obviously Jensen story is top drawer, but it would’ve been so much better if he’d read it himself.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Petrol heads you'll love it, others you'll love it

Life to the Limit by @JensonButton. For the #petrolheads looking for a good read on sporting legend, this book is for you. For others, this #autobiography shows a man's unwavering dedication to his father that leads to an emotional and tearful end. 📚 5/5⭐ #BookReview #booktwt

for more reviews follow me on Twitter @zennyreadsalot

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