Product Description

A.A. Gill is probably the most read columnist in Britain. Every weekend he entertains readers of the Sunday Times with his biting observations on television and his unsparing, deeply knowledgeable restaurant reviews. Even those who want to hate him agree: A. A. Gill is hopelessly, painfully funny. He is one of a tiny band of must-read journalists and it is always a disappointment when the words 'A. A. Gill is Away' appear at the foot of his column. This second book is a further collection of those absences; 22 travel pieces and essays on other subjects that belie his reputation as a mere style journalist and master of vitriol. This is writing of the highest quality and ambition.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #200647 in Books
• Published on: 2007-08-22
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

HERALD
"Gill manages to be entertaining and evocative in a way that puts supposedly literary writers to shame"

Review
"Gill manages to be entertaining and evocative in a way that puts supposedly literary writers to shame" (HERALD )

Synopsis
A.A. Gill is probably the most read columnist in Britain. Every weekend he entertains readers of the Sunday Times with his biting observations on television and his unsparing, deeply knowledgeable restaurant reviews. Even those who want to hate him agree: A. A. Gill is hopelessly, painfully funny. He is one of a tiny band of must-read journalists and it is always a disappointment when the words 'A. A. Gill is Away' appear at the foot of his column. This second book is a further collection of those absences; 22 travel pieces and essays on other subjects that belie his reputation as a mere style journalist and master of vitriol. This is writing of the highest quality and ambition.

Customer Reviews

As diverting as it is insubstantial
This is a collection of articles and essays by A.A. Gill from a period of about 20 years, covering everything from the Glastonbury festival, to beetles, to modern Haiti. They are, by and large, fairly short piecees, and many are very funny, so they make for entertaining little bursts of reading.

It is not, however, a book which I can enjoy reading for any length of time, and that can be put down to a number of reasons. It must be admitted, I accept, that Gill is an excellent prose stylist, but there is at times a slight glibness about the writing that suggests deep and meaningful insights, but they are never really developed or rewarded. The description is frequently masterful: Gill's evocation of the appalling squalor of Haiti is striking, but it often ends there. But these merits cannot carry the book as a whole.

For this book can never really be successful as a book, simply because of its origins. These are journalistic pieces, and must perforce lack the thoroughness and rigour of more literary writing, regardless of the panache of the prose. When Gill writes about his father's dementia (in what is a touching and thoughtful piece), the reader is offered no more than a brief vignette, with no more than a passing gesture towards the wider issues which the article raises.

So, a recommendation? For holiday reading, or to take on the train, this is a very good book. As a book itself, it is frustrating.

Same old stuff
It's been said that if you've read one Gill article you've read them all...well the same holds true for his books it seems.
Mr Gill only has one technique for writing and unfortunately it becomes rather predictable after the first chapter or so.
I also find that he's not particularly funny unless you are 16 years of age and in the habit of wearing a baseball cap backwards.

Savagely and seriously entertaining
If you haven't read A A Gill do try him. He's a mate of Jeremy Clarkson and it shows in a number of the pieces here. Gill is direct, often impolite, frequently raw, and takes little account of received opinion on anything. Having said that, he's also shrewd, full of insight, humane, often very funny and, when appropriate, capable of exposing injustice or cant with devastating honesty and directness. He writes with immense style and great fluency. A pleasure to read.