UKC Forums - “An embarrassment of cancer, the full English”

“An embarrassment of cancer, the full English”

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Big Ger 20 Nov 2016

I cannot say I am a fan of the man, nor his reviews, but this was quite shocking.

> Restaurant critic AA Gill has been diagnosed with “an embarrassment of cancer, the full English”, breaking the news in his regular “Table Talk” dining column. The 62-year-old Sunday Times writer said he was alerting readers who follow his restaurant recommendations and who ought to know if there were “any fundamental, gastro, epicurean personal changes that would affect my judgment”.

> Describing how the disease, diagnosed in the summer, had spread, he wrote: “There is barely a morsel of offal that is not included. I have a trucker’s gut-buster, gimpy, malevolent, meaty, malignancy”.

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/nov/20/aa-gill-opens-restaurant-revi...

Fraser 21 Nov 2016

In reply to Big Ger:

I saw that yesterday too. I've never been drawn to the man (based on what I've seen and read), but I must admit I always really enjoy his restaurant reviews.

toad 21 Nov 2016

In reply to Fraser:
I never knew he was at one time married to amber rudd!

Fraser 21 Nov 2016

In reply to toad:

Nor did I - that was equally shocking when I read that. Well, almost. Some of the reports he did with Jeremy Clarkson were quite entertaining - in many respects, they're two peas from the same pod.

OP Big Ger 10 Dec 2016

In reply to Big Ger:

The poor sod died yesterday, only 63.

Yanis Nayu 10 Dec 2016

In reply to toad:

I was getting Amber Rudd and Amber Heard mixed up....

Fraser 11 Dec 2016

In reply to Big Ger:

Hadn't heard that, that's really too bad. On the positive side, he seems to have lived a very full and varied life.

Pekkie 12 Dec 2016

In reply to Big Ger:
Well, yes, a lot of his stuff was amusing if a little ungracious - eg the Clare Balding 'dyke on a bike' episode but the incident when he shot an inoffensive baboon for fun was just nasty. Does karma really operate in the world?

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/oct/26/aa-gill-shot-baboon

Post edited at 21:14

Siward 12 Dec 2016

In reply to Fraser:

When I used to have access to the Sunday Times I'd always read his restaurant reviews first. Not because I ever ate at any of the establishments but because he was such a good writer. Utterly dyslexic and thought very much in images- someone else put the words onto the printed page for him.

His book review of Morrisey's autobiography ought to be printed inside the front cover of every copy.

http://www.theomnivore.com/a-a-gill-on-autobiography-by-morrissey-the-sunda...

Tall Clare 12 Dec 2016

I'm usually a Guardian fan (quel surprise, I hear you cry), but, despite an understanding that this barbed style mirrored Gill's writing, I thought Stuart Jeffries' obituary was unnecessarily vicious: https://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/dec/10/aa-gill-obituary

Siward 12 Dec 2016

In reply to Tall Clare:

Oh I don't know. Most of the less than flattering material there comes from Gill himself after all!
The Guardian was hardly his natural home and I suspect it's journos aren't really at ease with his, shall we call it 'plain speaking'?

Tall Clare 12 Dec 2016

In reply to Siward:

True. I think there's just some rather naive part of me that believes an obituary should somehow err on the side of finding positives, even if that extends as far as only listing the dates of birth and death...

Pekkie 12 Dec 2016

In reply to Tall Clare:

> I thought Stuart Jeffries' obituary was unnecessarily vicious: https://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/dec/10/aa-gill-obituary

Vicious or fair? if you dish it out you've got to be prepared to take it. Well he can't take it now. Any more than that poor baboon can.

Tall Clare 12 Dec 2016

In reply to Pekkie:

You're probably right and it is fair, certainly after the baboon, but a vicious obituary is something of a pyrrhic victory - after all, it's not as if he'll read it.

JJL 12 Dec 2016

In reply to Siward:

> When I used to have access to the Sunday Times I'd always read his restaurant reviews first. Not because I ever ate at any of the establishments but because he was such a good writer. Utterly dyslexic and thought very much in images- someone else put the words onto the printed page for him.

> His book review of Morrisey's autobiography ought to be printed inside the front cover of every copy.

> http://www.theomnivore.com/a-a-gill-on-autobiography-by-morrissey-the-sunda...

The opening paragraph of that is quite amusing, given a recent Nobel prize for literature...

Pekkie 12 Dec 2016

In reply to Tall Clare:

I don't want to speak ill of the departed but I've just read the obituary again and the only viciousness is in the A.A.Gill quotes - admittedly often witty.

Tall Clare 12 Dec 2016

In reply to Pekkie:

I think I'm probably being a bit precious because it's struck a personal note - not his barbed writing, but the speed of the cancer.

Pekkie 12 Dec 2016

In reply to JJL:

> The opening paragraph of that is quite amusing, given a recent Nobel prize for literature...

It's a bit unfair to compare Dylan as an author to Morrisey - 'Chronicles' is a good book. I don't think that Dylan really merits the prize as a poet but he wrote some good songs. As did Morrisey. 'Let's burn down the disco' and 'Heaven knows but I'm miserable now'. Quite.

Pekkie 12 Dec 2016

In reply to Tall Clare:

I agree. A human being died in pain from cancer. It's just that I've got an image in my head of that baboon sitting quietly in his tree, eating his banana...