A. A. Gill
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| Born: | June 28, 1954 (age 52) Edinburgh, Scotland |
|---|---|
| Occupation: | Columnist, Author |
| Nationality: |  British |
| Website: | [http://www.travelintelligence.net/php/writers/writ.php?id=22 |
Adrian Anthony Gill (born June 28, 1954) is a British newspaper columnist and writer. He is also restaurant reviewer in the Style section of the London Sunday Times, and a television critic in the Culture section in the same paper.
The son of television producer Michael Gill,[1] he was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, and studied at the Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design and the Slade School of Art. He is a recovered alcoholic who drank until age 30.[2] He has a long-term relationship with Nicola Formby of the Tatler,[3] who appears in his column as "The Blonde". He has two children called Flora and Alasdair.
Gill suffers from severe dyslexia. All his works are written by him dictating to copytakers.
He was once famously ejected from Aubergine, Gordon Ramsay's restaurant along with his dining partner Joan Collins. Ramsay's reason was that Gill had written a review of his restaurant that covered his personal life more than the food.
His article on Albania drew thousands of angry emails and a law suit.
He has received criticism from countless UK celebrities and the social elite due to his abrasive nature. He was once described as a "complete and utter prick" by Richard Branson of Virgin Atlantic.
[edit] Quotes
Gill is notorious for his acerbic, provocative style, on one occasion in 1997 damaging his career by describing the Welsh as:
- "loquacious dissemblers, immoral liars, stunted, bigoted, dark, ugly, pugnacious little trolls,"
While two years later he angered Germans with an article called "Hunforgiven",[4] making numerous references to their Nazi past. In 2004, when writing about the ITV drama Island at War, based on the German occupation of Jersey and Guernsey, he asked:
- "What have the Channel Islands ever done for us? A couple of really expensive potatoes, a few flowers and fatty milk."
His comments were widely condemned in the islands as offensive and inaccurate.[5]
On being mistaken for an Englishman he stated:
- I don't like the English. One at a time, I don't mind them. I've loved some of them. It's their collective persona I can't warm to: the lumpen and louty, coarse, unsubtle, beady-eyed, beefy-bummed herd of England.
- The truth is—and perhaps this is a little unworthy, a bit shameful—I find England and the English embarrassing. Fundamentally toe-curlingly embarrassing. And even though I look like one, sound like one, can imitate the social/mating behaviour of one, I'm not one. I always bridle with irritation when taken for an Englishman, and fill in those disembarkation cards by pedantically writing "Scots" in the appropriate box (The Angry Island).
On former World Wrestling Federation midcarder Headbanger Mosh:
- An outstanding performer in the field of the old grunt and groan, a meercat in the ring and a behemoth of jollity out of it. One would say that many of this country's so-called "celebrities" such as Nick Knowles and Misha could do with something Headbanger Moshification (Evening Standard article)
He founded a hotel review website in 2000 where some of his articles can still be found.[6]
[edit] Notes
- ^ http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,60-1847640,00.html
- ^ http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,,1667476,00.html
- ^ http://women.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,18030-1730930,00.html
- ^ http://www.travelintelligence.net/php/articles/art.php?id=1001185
- ^ http://www.thisisguernsey.com/code/showarchive.pl
- ^ http://www.travelintelligence.net/php/writers/writ.php?id=22
[edit] Bibliography
- Sap Rising (1997)
- Ivy Cookbook (1999) co-author
- Starcrossed (1999)
- AA Gill is Away (2003) collection of travel writing. ISBN 0-7538-1681-4
- The Angry Island (2005) a book about England and the English. ISBN 0-297-84318-4
