I was so excited when I read your words "..i found him again today..." but then I realized that the obstacle you were referring to was only the personal data request. what about the inane subscription policy the Times has instituted? i too was a regular reader of gill's -- his weekly columns sent me into a state of rapture -- for years but have been cruelly blocked ever since the Times started demanding money (and a lot of it) to read the newspaper online. i suppose i could cough up the cash but i'm a poor scribe and can't justify it. anywhere you've found gill, gratis?

Thanks for writing. The interest in the A.A. Gill article is quite intense judging from the referral logs. <p>I have not found an alternate source of his archives other than the pay for use one you mention and I am inclined to not hunt too much if a publisher such as <i>The Times</i> chooses to put limits on the ability to access works they publish. They never know, unless they read this post, my dissatisfaction but that is the nature of the web.

Best way to avoid paying the stupid fee from the Times is to have a friend in London send you his column via snail mail. Once a month my day is made when the envelope arrives from London.

You have a good pal there, Marty.

I'm astonished that anyone could write so gushingly of Gill.
Adrian Gill is,in journalistic terms a one trick pony.He has only one joke and does endless variations.
I almost believe that he has a relative on the top table in the Times..I can see no other reason why he still has a job there.
His food column seems to consist of several columns of showing off and bare yer bum writing,followed by a couple of paragraphs on the actual food.Tedious and predictable.
It's rather like the kind of stuff Julie Birchill used to do before she went establishment.
He obviously would like to escape the columns a write "proper" books,however the self concious and embarrassing efforts he has produced so far wouldn't give him too much hope in that direction!

Well, seeing as I have not read the man regularly for years due to the subscription requirement, you may be quite right.

i like alan. heather is a prick. marty is a trick. phillip davies is a brick.

alan, dear, if you want your entirely free copy of a a gill, scanned, text digitalized and emailed to you every monday morning, just let me know, it's my pleasure!

xxx

As I will say often, there are few things better than gifts, even if contraband! Please forward to me any and all at the address on the front page. Sadly, I cannot turn this into a general republication site but will share in the pleasant wickedness of others.

Phil is a pill (or perhaps he just needs to chill)
If you desire AA Gill
I can give you your fill

Now this is a pickle. I had fleeting and flitting imaginations that jewl was AA himself but now I see that there is a world of out there of kind folk willing to forward - despite the maxim we say in our prayers each night: <i>nemo dat quod non habet.</i>

Toowitt-Toowoo; what to do? Where is Wise Owl when you need a speaking avian picture on the wall with which to review ethical problems?

Jewl, Maron: You know where to find me.

I need your email address to send a selection of my AA Gill files.

There is a wee button to the right below the large search button. If I don't write it out I think keep down <i>der spammen</i>.

Three neatly folded past columns received gratefully this morning.

Phil Davis,what a cunt

Language!!! Where do you think this is? My dear old Arseblog?

I am honestly <i>not</i> stalking this guy but I did come across this web chatting area today which strikes me as very odd. Click on the user name and you get all the posts for Mr. Gill or an impersonator. As a medium of chat, a public jointly used general thread is a bit of a puzzle to me. As a medium for slanderous impersonation, it is a bit of a waste of time. Anyway, it appears to have only lasted as someone's infatuation last July.

I am one of those cheapskates who want to read A.A. Gill but won't cough up the necessary Euros for the Times online. Any of you kind hearts who wish to forward favourites from your archives and/or current dowloads would earn my deepest gratitude. Perhaps we would find a way to reciprocate.
Greetings from Greece.

Jim Creighton

Firstly my apologies, as this will bang on a little. I don’t usually do this sort of thing, I'm living dangerously... Typing away, furiously working on my great unfinished second novel, sweat cascading from my brow as I pondered ‘Bohemian Pirates in Pigswill’ I got to thinking of AA Gill and his brilliance and thirst for knowledge. It’s not like I’m gay and it’s late at night... just plain, no nonsense AA shot into my mind like a gleaming torch around the scraps of unworthy throwaway journalism.
Phil Davies where is your brain?
Gill constantly mocks the establishment he moves in but thrives on it’s capacity for abstract thought and the power of indulgence - A difficult trait to avoid when you get flown around the world with your best mate to write informative, comic skits and have plenty of time to read thought-provoking books to pad it all out. I don’t know about Gill’s novels, perhaps I should, perhaps he can’t take the pace of a full on narrative.... Someone always holds the silver-spoons, especially in good old Blighty so moaning about that will get you nowhere...
I will always chuckle at his malevolent charm when he described a plump middle-aged local at a canal-side restaurant in Leeds as having a face that looked "like it belonged on a whaler’s prow.” In the same meal, Jeremy Clarkson got prodded in the eye by the said women’s husband who was about five feet tall.
Comedy within his own life in a diary form is Gill’s forte, the ability to enact tears in the age of 'The Simpsons'. Gill knows the food, to even hint that he doesn’t is ridiculous. Naturally after years of filler criticism come cynacism, stuff like social aspects, differences, plights, quirks, politics, philanthropy, ecological issues and all things pretty much virtuous & artistic come into play like a tiger.
That is the divine art of AA Gill, away with the fairies of William Blake and his vision. The man is without a shadow an undoubted genius with a quarter of the readership of Michael Winner’s predictably establishment column elsewhere in the paper’s tedious bulk. I used to buy just for Gill, but he does have a habit of being 'Away' as I mentioned. Winner keeps the strait-laced straight as the wise ones read Gill and chortle at buried jokes of ridiculously elitist posture, the outrageous flirting and at the end of it; a heart pumping vibrant in the stone of modern day society, who choose to interacting with one another via mediums like this.

Thanks - that was great writing.

A.A.Gill wrote a fantastic article in his TV review in Sunday Times Culture a few years sgo. It contained a fabulous tirade about moustaches. As this seems to be his fan-club, can anyone tell me where to get this article. I need it for research purposes!

Thanks

Alex

I think I need the blessings of Gill for elevation to fan-club.

Has anyone else read any of, the devinely cruel and human, Adrian's books? I'm gonna try and find 'AA Gill Is Away' at the library and will let you know what I turn up - it looks good tho' - 22 travel pieces. In the meantime, if anyone wants to copy me in on the Times column I would be delighted, truly.

Lived in London 3 years during the 90's, and always enjoyed AA Gill. Annoyed when the Times began asking for payment, as the rest of the paper is rubbish. If you are willing to forward recent/best of Gill columns via email, that would be great.

As compensation, I offer the website of a columnist I discovered last week who is just as good, IMHO.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/columnists/0,5977,smaushart^^TEXT^theaustralian,00.html

Buy the paper for an education, and snigger at a.a, or is that t'other way round duck? Good god, you're boring me now.

A.A. Gill ..is this the same one who wrote the funniest
eview of Celine Dion in Las Vegas in Vanity Fair Sept 2003.
The guy is a genius. His words ooze spectacular charm.
Hey A. A. Gill...come and review New Zild (N.Z) anytime!!!!!

I actually work as a copytaker, I took copy for Mr Gill today, a mostly quite impressive piece about Haiti.
It was bloody long though! 4,730 words (his, and my longest yet!), but quite engaging, and although i recognise the accusation that he can be a bit repetetive in terms of literary gymnastics, he is quite a personable chap, and not at all precious about his text - he will take on suggestions and amendments to his copy without the slightest inkling of foppish pride.
All in all, I think his stuff is generally entertaining to read, and perhaps more suited to a novel than a newspaper, due to it's flowery, though not purple, descriptiveness.
I personally as a student of Japanese found his article on the Japs very much hitting the nail on the head, and would use it for "inspiration" in my essays! While not quite a fully paid up Gillophile,
J'accuse Philip Davies of envy.

Jack

I once saw a play with the lines:<blockquote class="smalltext"><i>J'accuse!!!</i><p>Jack Hughes?!? Who the hell is Jack Hughes???</blockquote>Say hello to Mr Gill for us.

?

!

I live on the Cote d'Azur, and buying english papers becomes rather expensive. I would buy the Times only on weekends as it contained so much to read, and really looked forward to AA Gill's column. It's not such a good read these days, as for some reason now in France, we don't receive the Style section. Boohoo, i miss it. If there is anyone out there who knows how i can access, in particular, AA Gill's articles (without signing up & paying) i would be most grateful!

Can anyone tell me where I can locate Gill's spankingly good Kraut-bash publishes in the Sunday Times some years ago? Thanks

I recently saw AA Gill go into a smart London restaurant with that Jeremy Clarkson. Being a Gill-ophile I hung around to see exactly what they were going to order. Under Gills direction they both had Lambsbread in a Hollandaise sauce. Do you think they know that's sheeps balls with a goat spunk sauce or do you think Gill is just trying to turn Clarkson gay?

A sighting! Fabulous, Jules.

Please can someone explain to me Mr Gill's vitriolic and gratuitous attack on the Channel Islands on July 18th?!?! He was supposedly reviewing the new ITV drama 'Island at War' and seemingly used this as an opportunity to not only write complete and utter untruths of the islands' during the occupation, but to also launch an attack on the islands today. I just hope Mr Gill is never in a situation where he has to eat seaweed and dead segulls just to survive, like my grandmother had to during the Occupation. Twat!

What if it was sort of an asian fushion seaweed seagull dish...?

Gill's book, AA Gill is Away, is vastly entertaining.

Steeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeve!<p>Did you crow bowl?

>That is the divine art of AA Gill, away with the fairies of William Blake and his vision; a heart pumping vibrant in the stone of modern day society, who choose to interacting with one another via mediums like this.

Oh God, spare us.....

L.A., are you trying to say that only Gill's establishment set is capable of 'expansive thought'? And what's so 'expansive' about his narrow-minded swipes at the Welsh, Germans, Japanese etc.? The guy can be very funny, but he needs to stick to souffles, not Sudan.

What a delight to find other people read AA religiously. He's a great wordsmith unlike the other critics who are just wordswords.
A few reference points: Here in Boston, MA.(USA) the Sunday Times arrives Monday evening but the Magazine and the Style section are left out. So paying $8.00 is a bit much.
Now, there are libraries nearby which subscribe. Cambridge Public Library gets a copy and of course, Harvard does--Harvard also receives the FULL paper; how that is possible I know not.

I happen to have saved most of AA's writings over the past ten years. His very best were the early ones: the trip to the animal market in Norwich was wonderful; the piece on animals receiving war medals equally as good. Also his restaurant reviews are spot on; Having lived in England for a few years I can assure you the tedious pretense of English chefs is beyond the pale and requires AA to put matters right.

So, write on AA; you make the Sunday paper worthwhile.

>I happen to have saved most of AA's writings over the past ten years.

I bet your girlfriend loves reading through them. You do have one, right?

Hey - that was funny, Mark. Can you go away now?

My apologies, Alan. You must be impatient to belittle someone else's wartime suffering.

Not at all but your last response was inappropriate and not related to wartime suffering. Be nice and you can play.

can anyone direct me to a positive restaurant review by aa gill?

Would Jack the copytaker for AA Gill contact me please, I am planning a trip to Haiti and want to get my hands on that article. Can't access through Sunday Times archive, they don't seem to take the magazine articles.

I highly recommend A.A. Gill's "Letters to New York" article in the November 2004 Vanity Fair. A malevolent chronicle of Gotham's gym culture, it skewers African dancing, Pilates, Spinning and all manner of futile attempts at immortality.

Very good - I will hunt it out. I do hope he is cruel to Celine Dion again.

Does any good soul have the article of A.A. Gill about Celine Dion´s Las Vegas show that appeared in VANITY FAIR a while ago. It is one of his absolute funniest!

Thanks, Agni

OK so why has AA Gill not apppeared in the Sunday Times for weeks now? And how come that pitiful Ron Liddle seems to have taken his job, without so much as an "AA Gill is away"?

The man is an everyday literary genius. All the above posts caused me to smile wryly. Its comforting to know that there are others out there..
Gill versus Clarkson and their differing perspectives is 100% entertainment.

I miss him too! Living in the USA I exist on quotes from his reviews which appear from time to time, like his comment that the American dish Grits was 'like consuming the sick of an infant child.' Best ever though, had to be the review of the Millenium Dome where he wrote that the PR girl must go home every night, get into the bath and cry and cry...does anyone have a copy of that saved somewhere?

Hey Al,

Greetings from Saint John. You may already be aware of this, but it seems that the Times is allowing free access to some of its content again. Go to: http://www.timesonline.co.uk

For a recent tv review by AA Gill go to:
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,14934-1570747,00.html

I imagine there's more Gill stuff where that came from.

Hope you're all well. We're doing fine.

Ranald

Hey Ranald! Good to hear - all is well here. I will have to get Gill hunting again. I would buy the Times just for him if I could trust he would be there but I think that he has disappeared from there as well.<p>Where is Mr. Gill?

How funny! I didn't know anyone else admired AA Gill as much as I do. Now and then I have missed him while living in America, land of flabby and unwitty writing. From my files, his television review from April 1995 entitled "Nothing Could Persuade Me." About the Austen classic "Persuasion" he wrote that instead of enduring it he'd "rather have gone round Blenheim on a wet Wednesday in February with a busload of Koreans." And "television's endless trawling through Georgian and Victorian novels to give itself a spurious cultural gravitas is horrible and pernicious. This middle-brow, middle-aged, middle-march smugness...this proud-to-be-British television, is sickening." Finally, "I watched 'Persuasion' with a girl. She started off on the other end of the sofa. By the time we got to 'the kiss' I was wearing her like a damp matinee jacket."

About "A Village Affair" he wrote, give me "a couple of Sapphic trollops and I'm perky as anything, jabbing the rewind button like billyo for a slo-mo replay of the dripping nipple-crushing." And finally, about "Sharpe's Battle": "There isn't anything like enough war on television. The romantic interest comes on, gets its kit off for the boys and then sits in a tent. Big breasts and dead Frenchmen. What more could a chap ask for?" Brilliant.

Was introduced to Gill back in the early 90s while working in London. The Christmas review of the US restaurant, TGIF was a classic. Is there anywhere you can find these gems?

I am a Canadian married to a Welshman living in Trinidad and Tobago and had an epiphany when I realised that I could go into the British Embassy and read the newspapers for free, and lo and behold, there was the glorious AAGill, mine and mine alone and for free to boot. So I kicked off my flipflops and sat crosslegged and devoured the entire magazine in about 30 minutes. Now it's my regular thing. Overseas people should try it.

Dear all,

Does anyone have an email contact for the dear Mr. Gill. Adrian is an intersting character and I personally like his style- after all, if the restaurants he eats at are sub-standard, do you really want to read a verbose, sprawling article about the name of the Taiwanese pauper who hand-stitched the napkin he wiped the detritus of the god-awful meal he has just had the misfortune to taste and of which the restauranteur is onanistically proud? I'd rather hear about "The Blonde".

Crikey, this message is a bit verbose....

Oh, too late.

I feel that I have to comment on AA Gill and his arrogant and disgraceful comments with regard to the Welsh.
What planet is this diatribous nincompoop on?
I understand that he is now having a go at the English.
Gill, insists he is Scottish. Now there is a race of miserable,dour,difficult,arrogant,uncouth mean and self-centered people for you.
I am happy to be an "ugly pugnacious troll" to use his words.
This man is worthy of his Scottish ancestry, he has all the attributes of a race that is well known for having a chip on its shoulder.

This website is operated by a Scot - me. I'll have to determine how to edit what you have written for maxiumum Welsh angering effect.

I'm half Scot, half English. Agreeing with him but not too much?

Where does that leave me?

(p.s.: I'm not fussed about the Welsh either)

Did you know that AA Gill has a new book out?
See the review in <i>The Times</i>. And his column is now online every week!

Knut

It's true! I had fallen so far away from the rude one that I missed the fact that the columns are up again. I must tell the Flea.

What fabulous writing.

I remember being disgusted by A. A. Gill's racist (yes RACIST!) rants against the Welsh. He spoke about Welsh people exactly the same way as the Nazis used to speak about the Jews, right down to sneering remarks about their supposed physical appearance. Since Gill talks in an effete English public school squeak, I thought he was English. Now that I know that he is Scottish, I am not only disgusted by his poisonous attitudes, but - as a Scot - embarrassed. The fact that some Welsh people (see John M. Hughes above) are every bit as stupid and racist as Gill does not excuse his behaviour. Gill's new book about the English ("The Angry Islands") is mild and affectionate in its criticisms. If he wrote about the English as nastily as he wrote about the Welsh he would be attacked as an "anti-English bigot" by the same people who not only greeted his anti-Welsh venom with a good laugh but probably expected Welsh people to do the same. This is a ridiculous double standard but that is modern Britain for you.

I accept that I may have been discourteous in my appraisal of the Scottish and I take the point that unsavoury Bob is trying to make. However, I cannot imagine that any Welsh person would have had a "good laugh" at Gill's comments, exactly the opposite I would have thought.
When I read the comments on one of our local websites I was incensed and very angry. I am just a very passionate Welshman , I am not a racist and I accept that I was out of order with my comments and apologise unreservedly to all your contributors if I have offended them.
John M Hughes

Peace, brother. It is Yule and regret is banished. Post any time. Tell us about Wales.

Hey
I was wondering if anyone has, or knows where there is a copy of an article written by A.A Gill and Jeremy Clarkson where they are both on holiday together and end up on a nudist colony. It is quite possibly the funniest article i have ever read. If anyone can help please email!
Ta

Oh Adrian, please do tell us about british cuisine. I am longing to visit an english restaurant somewhere. I say, anyone for some jolly good fish & chips?
Now, where should I book my flight to? Paris? Brussels? Vienna? Vilnius? Berlin? Rome? Riga? Budapest? Prague? Sotckholm? Oslo? Madrid?

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,25609-1730930,00.html

Just how much of a prick can one be? (or shouldn't I have a go as well? A fossilized brit prick).

Dear Rodrigo, prick is AA GILL middle name for sure. don´t even take into account his words but do enjoy his writing ;)... for a good laugh

I think A A stands for Arse Ache.

Does anyone know where to find the article about Celine Dion?

I just stumbled across you AA lovers...i live in LA and miss him too. I'd love to be included in your emailings of any past articles.

I know this is an old blog post....I read AA Gill's columns regularly. I never had a reason to "miss" him since I'm an American and have only read what I can get online at the Times and elsewhere. He comes off as an absolutely insufferable dandy; Oscar Wildeish, even; but unfortunately, I'm forced to concede that Mr. Wilde has written some of my favorite plays and Mr. Gill some of my favorite effete, smug, outrageous columns. It is a consolation that Mr. Gill nevertheless manages to write terrible novels. He *is* a prick! I wish I could hate him enough to stop reading his columns, and I wish I didn't feel so damned depraved every time I use the word "delicious" to describe them.

Also, FWIW, I think Michael Winner is insufferable too and I hardly understand why he's so establishment. I can't think of a single restaurant/food critic in the United States who can afford to indulge in self-praise and egomania, purposefully and proudly totally lacking in subtlety, like Michael Winner's and AA Gill's week after week. Our restaurant critics all seem to talk about restaurants, not so much about themselves. But perhaps that's why I keep reading Winner and Gill and Coren, for the change of it.

Dear Sir,
I would be really intersted to know if you could tell what you wrote in your paper directly (face to face) to some Albanian people.
My impression is that you spent most of your time in bars in Tirana, instead of trying to meet with common people, or maybe you have been told (if not ordered) to describe Albanians the way you did.
I would be very happy to have you here and discuss about all you wrote. As not that rich as you are, I can not afford all your expenses (Having worked for 4 months for ITN/Mike Nicholson, Bill Neely and more people in Albania and Kosovo in 1999, I know that only expenses for your drinks exceed my salary, which of course does not give you the privilege to bullshit about my country), but I can do all my efforts to make you see that you have tried just to blacken our history, culture, traditions and whatever else.

Would be happy, not at all honoured, to have an answer.

Spartak Kasapi

Finally an unhappy Albanian polite enough not to delete. I think you and others may, however, want to review Mr. Gill's thoughts on my people - the Scots - and get well back in line. That being said, of course he has the privilege to write whatever he like just as you do and I do. But if you think you are going to get an answer from a public figure but posting a comment to a blog post <i>about</i> that public figure I think you may have to have a little think about your tactics chosen to right this wrong.<p>For the education of others, he is an article on A.A. Gill's unhappy experience in Albania and the unhappiness at his expression of his unhappiness.

I don't find AA Gill an interesting character at all...I think he tries everything he could to attract attention (i.e. by offending people and making use of his sick imagination), and that's all. If he would have written the same about English as he wrote about Welsh or Albanians, sure that there would have been a big reaction everywhere in England, and perhaps he would have had to move back to Scotland for sure. Instead, he knew that, and his 'humour' was very mild against the English, compared to the offence that he throws at Welsh, Albanians etc....

and to the guy that owns this blog (for your information) AA Gill's only experience in Albania was at a death metal bar!!!, where he perhaps under the influence of alchool and of course his ignorance about the history of Europe, wrote that garbage, (even not at the levels of a rubish tabloid). I am from Norway, but have met some great albanians friends at the university, and also greatly enjoyed my visit to that beautiful Southern European country.

Thanks for being polite. But big deal. Gill and his paper are exercising their freedom. Not as I would but that is his choice. And I am sure 99.9999% of Albanians are polite, fun to be with and able to not worry about this at all. But if you write threats of any kind on a website I run, expect it to be deleted. <p>And go read what he wrote about Celine Dion. Surely that will bring you back on his side.

AA Gill downloads a thousand misused adjectives on the subject of Kate Moss in the latest, gorgeous, edition of Vanity Fair: what a master of prose souffle he is. He seeks to explain Kate's resurgence in the wake of Hurricane Cocaine and concludes that, well, savour it for yourself:

"She said nothing. She did nothing. There was no contrite press release ... There is an old, stiff-lipped, patrician motto that could be stitched onto her pillow: NEVER EXPLAIN, NEVER COMPLAIN..."

Really? Adrian must have been in Albania when Kate issued this public statement, following splash tales of her powdery sniffings (not snortings!) on September 22, 2005:

"I take full responsibility for my actions, I also accept that there are various personal issues that I need to address and have started taking the difficult, yet necessary, steps to resolve them. I want to apologise to all of the people I have let down because of my behaviour, which has reflected badly on my family, friends, co-workers, business associates and others." She added she was trying to "stay positive" with the "invaluable support and love I have received." BBC News report

Sounds like a bit of strategic contrition to me, though I'm open to other constructions. But I think this rather knocks Adrian's theory on the head.
I wonder whether editor Graydon Carter will be demanding the return of the four-figure fee. Or maybe he promised Kate a mythologising history rewrite, from the hands of a compliant top-sterling hack, in return for her blinding September cover pic.

No one reads AA Gill because he is correct. One reads him because he is a clever bitchy writer.

A Book Review of A.A. Gill`s: The Angry Island is here now : http://www.insolentboy.com/BookReviews12.html

How Yah Doon? A London-based magazine devoted to rock n roll, poetry and fine writing seeks reviewers. Please contact info@insolentboy.com
if interested.

Editor

"Kate [2:31 PM October 29, 2004]
katebi4@yahoo.ie
Would Jack the copytaker for AA Gill contact me please, I am planning a trip to Haiti and want to get my hands on that article. Can't access through Sunday Times archive, they don't seem to take the magazine articles."

If only I'd done a vanity search two and half years ago!

I think it's this one:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/article1037225.ece

The most amusing thing was that when I took copy form him, he told me I could put the puntuation whereever I liked because he was completely dyslexic; I never told him that I am too!

I once unwittingly had lunch with AA Gill in a Shepherds Bush wateringhole and at the time had no idea who he was or that he was so well known. The bill arrived and he conveniently had left his wallet at his 6 bedroom mansion whereas I was an impoverished out of work writer ...

I remember feeling a bit cheated as I counted out those precious notes ..

What a skinflint !

I personally think he is arogant, rude, and an ignorant self opiniated fool who's writing is a one trick pony, re hashing racist and negative stereotypes of the people he portrays. I don't even find his wit humourous. There are certain people and writers who can make their negative opinions witty, this man however seems not to be able to do so.

...bit like you then Gemma? ;)