Someone in my gf's office turned me on to his restaurant reviews and after a recent trip to Albion, the gf brought back a bunch of his books, one of which, The Angry Island, I have just finished. Have you read him? I'm having a little difficulty placing him, exactly, in a British context. He can be quite entertaining to read, but I'm not sure I 'hear' his voice correctly.
― Michael White, Wednesday, 19 March 2008 19:01 (sixteen years ago) link
I find this tricky to answer. He is surprisingly hard to place: I think it's essentially an update on the Waugh (Evelyn but more Auberon) voice: wit pretending to be brutally dismissive of everyone, with an attachment to old-school gentleman's lifestyle and the trappings of the upper classes - but there's a new Britain Thatcherite filter on top of that. Essentially Tory. I dislike him on principle (see: 'essentially Tory'), but grudgingly admire his journalism: he does what he does very well, there's actual wit in there compared to eg his pal Clarkson. I imagine it's similar to what his side of the divide see when they look at Charlie Brooker.
― woofwoofwoof, Friday, 21 March 2008 01:26 (sixteen years ago) link
Dud
AA Gill shot baboon 'to see what it would be like to kill someone'
"If he wants to know what it like to shoot a human, he should take aim at his own leg..."
― PC Thug (Ned Trifle II), Tuesday, 27 October 2009 09:30 (fourteen years ago) link
you know I think the solution to those feelings is probably better found in some very serious therapy.
― FC Tom Tomsk Club (Merdeyeux), Tuesday, 27 October 2009 10:32 (fourteen years ago) link
ever since i heard his mummy boy posh twit of the year high pitched squeaking voice, i find it difficult to read him with any enjoyment.
anyway, the real problem with that article is that of all of his food writing lately- 90% look what i did! 10% btw meh food
― you can have this tapdance here for free (darraghmac), Tuesday, 27 October 2009 11:18 (fourteen years ago) link
otm, the whole way through I thought he was going to cook the baboon or go to somewhere where they cooked baboon or something in some way related to the baboon.
― PC Thug (Ned Trifle II), Tuesday, 27 October 2009 11:39 (fourteen years ago) link
is "I shot a baboon in Tanzania, just to watch him die" a good joke or a bad joke? I'm leaning strongly towards the latter.
― FC Tom Tomsk Club (Merdeyeux), Tuesday, 27 October 2009 11:45 (fourteen years ago) link
it's a poor joke, tbh, but an awful lyric. try making tanzania scan.
― you can have this tapdance here for free (darraghmac), Tuesday, 27 October 2009 11:51 (fourteen years ago) link
indeed. Thx for confirmation.
― FC Tom Tomsk Club (Merdeyeux), Tuesday, 27 October 2009 11:57 (fourteen years ago) link
Pretty much beyond parody, but this comes close:
http://www.compsoc.man.ac.uk/~cow/studio/geefe.html
― Neil S, Tuesday, 27 October 2009 12:45 (fourteen years ago) link
I think he's more in line with Kenneth Tynan (the wit of 'the only entertaining people are ones that smoke' variety) and sometimes it surprises me that he watches television at all and doesn't just concentrate on eating expensively around London.
― xyzzzz__, Tuesday, 27 October 2009 13:03 (fourteen years ago) link
But he doesn't really write about eating (see comment above).
He's a good - sometimes great - travel writer. And I really fucking hate baboons. So, Classic.
― DavidM, Tuesday, 27 October 2009 15:02 (fourteen years ago) link
yeah, trouble is he writes travel regardless of what he should be writing. i have a couple of his travel collections, and they're great reads.
― you can have this tapdance here for free (darraghmac), Tuesday, 27 October 2009 15:12 (fourteen years ago) link
I won't fault his morbid curiosity but killing creatures for the sake of experiencing killing is the height of wankery.
― l'homme moderne: il forniquait et lisait des journaux (Michael White), Tuesday, 27 October 2009 16:29 (fourteen years ago) link
is it hard to say that as an absolute position without trying it first?
― you can have this tapdance here for free (darraghmac), Tuesday, 27 October 2009 16:35 (fourteen years ago) link
Kill a friggin' deer, then. You can at least eat that or donate the meat.
― l'homme moderne: il forniquait et lisait des journaux (Michael White), Tuesday, 27 October 2009 16:40 (fourteen years ago) link
yeah, that's true.
― you can have this tapdance here for free (darraghmac), Tuesday, 27 October 2009 16:41 (fourteen years ago) link
in any case, writing about it to be cool is probably the height of wankery
here's a straw man, now where's my advance?
http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2013/07/america-with-love-aa-gill-excerpt
― Neil S, Thursday, 20 June 2013 10:49 (ten years ago) link
I don't think I have ever properly read anything by him, but everything I hear about what he has written makes him sound like a cockfarmer of the highest order. Like when he said that Mary Beard was too much of a minger to be on television.
― The New Dirty Vicar, Monday, 24 June 2013 20:20 (ten years ago) link
i like him tbh. far more perceptive and less insensitive than the easy caricature he loves to play up to
― r|t|c, Monday, 24 June 2013 20:55 (ten years ago) link
terrific restaurant critic (who totally does write about food?) at the very least - everything else he does is up for quarrel but not that
― r|t|c, Monday, 24 June 2013 20:58 (ten years ago) link
Mary Beard's looks arent an issue but her am-dram delivery is- tbf she shares that with every other bbc science/nature/history presenter atm
I think gill is a very good writer
― should we bin tapping? (darraghmac), Monday, 24 June 2013 21:29 (ten years ago) link
He is.
I don't think I have ever properly read anything by him, but everything I hear about what he has written makes him sound like a cockfarmer of the highest order. Like when he said that Mary Beard was too much of a minger to be on television.― The New Dirty Vicar, Monday, 24 June 2013 Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
― The New Dirty Vicar, Monday, 24 June 2013 Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
Or the stuff around Clare Balding - in the end he is saying that TV is a visual medium therefore better looking people appear on most of its programmes for a reason. Whether its a programme about cars or the classics.
He attacked Paul Morley a few weeks ago, calling him a 'kidult' etc. Newsnight Review is such a shambles you'd go along with most of it.
― xyzzzz__, Monday, 24 June 2013 21:59 (ten years ago) link
saw this and thought of youhttp://www.chortle.co.uk/steveimages/nomad.jpg
― painfully alive in a drugged and dying culture (DavidM), Thursday, 21 July 2016 10:23 (seven years ago) link
in treatment, his own quotes dont suggest he's planning any long excursions
― the kids are alt right (darraghmac), Sunday, 20 November 2016 16:41 (seven years ago) link
Hope a baboon comes and kills him
― I hear from this arsehole again, he's going in the river (James Morrison), Sunday, 20 November 2016 21:33 (seven years ago) link