Collection of amazing writing a reminder of the lost art of acerbic insight

Gill’s peers referred to him as the Londoner everyone wanted around their table

THE BEST OF A.A. GILL A.A. Gill Loot.co.za (R357) Weidenfeld & Nicolson

ADRIAN Anthony (A.A.) Gill was born in Edinburgh and was a writer and a critic. He passed away in 2016.

He was best known for food and travel writing, was The Sunday Times’ restaurant reviewer as well as a television critic. He also wrote for Vanity Fair, GQ and Esquire, and published numerous books.

Gill’s writing style was often acerbic and his views and opinions controversial and he wrote on an amazingly diverse range of topics.

His peers referred to him as the Londoner everyone wanted at their table; a golden writer; a giant among journalists. Interestingly enough, he was a chronic dyslexic and had to dictate all his writing.

The Best of A.A. Gill encapsulates some of the very best of his work: the peerlessly astute criticism, the extraordinarily knowledgeable food writing, historic assignments throughout the world and his reflections on life, love and death.

His long-time book editor, Celia Hayley, who compiled this selection, says: “Adrian is gone and we are all the poorer for it: we need that fearless, dazzling, opinionated, provoking and hilarious voice more than ever. But it lives on in the writing he left behind, of which this book is just the tip of the iceberg. I hope it makes you laugh, I hope it makes you gasp, and I hope it makes you miss him.”

There are many highlights in the hugely readable book, and with the breadth of topics covered not all inclusions will have appeal.

Vegetarians will likely be umbraged by his piece about a visit to a vegetarian restaurant: “The first thing you notice is the smell, the round, mushy, slightly acidic odour of sanctimonious worthiness.

“We queued with a tray and surveyed the repast set out to tempt us. Vegetarians aren’t big on presentation; everything looks as if they’ve got a bulimic hippo as a food taster. The thing a diligent critic must have to be fair to vegetarian lunch is a gnawing hunger.

“Peckish won’t do, you’ve got to be famished to pass this on to trusting peristalsis.” Hopefully things have changed for the better in the 13 years since this was penned… .

For me, and I suspect for most all of the book’s South African readership, the standout piece was the one titled “Nelson Mandela”, written in July 2008. It is a magnificently written and observed, sensitive example of AA Gill’s writing.

Its setting – a photo shoot in London for Madiba to have his 90th birthday picture taken “with a hundred folk he didn’t know”.

And it contains these superb lines: “He looks up and around and smiles this brilliant, beatific smile, a smile that could break your heart. It is the most conscience-tugging, soul-moving facial expression in the world, and he got it in jail.

“He came out 27 years later with this miraculous face, moulded and creased by injustice into a transcendent African mask, this expression that speaks every language …”

Whether or not one shares Gill’s opinions, The Best of A.A. Gill is a beautifully compiled tribute to a man’s whose pen wrote words at a level of excellence admired by many.