A A Gill, Classic or Dud?

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.

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..."

you know I think the solution to those feelings is probably better found in some very serious therapy.

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

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.

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.

it's a poor joke, tbh, but an awful lyric. try making tanzania scan.

indeed. Thx for confirmation.

Pretty much beyond parody, but this comes close:

http://www.compsoc.man.ac.uk/~cow/studio/geefe.html

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.

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.

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.

I won't fault his morbid curiosity but killing creatures for the sake of experiencing killing is the height of wankery.

is it hard to say that as an absolute position without trying it first?

Kill a friggin' deer, then. You can at least eat that or donate the meat.

yeah, that's true.

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

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.

i like him tbh. far more perceptive and less insensitive than the easy caricature he loves to play up to

terrific restaurant critic (who totally does write about food?) at the very least - everything else he does is up for quarrel but not that

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

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

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.

saw this and thought of you
http://www.chortle.co.uk/steveimages/nomad.jpg

in treatment, his own quotes dont suggest he's planning any long excursions

Hope a baboon comes and kills him