A collection of essays and travel pieces by the late travel and food critic, who was one of the wittiest, funniest, most vulgar and observant writers. His topics here range from an assignment in Haiti, where he witnesses a murder and gets caught in the middle of a riot. In Brazil, he observes the lifestyle of both the rich and poor and gets pretty entranced with "bottoms". In New York, he commits to trying all the trendy gyms and their exercise programs. One of the funniest pieces is about golf, with Gill in a fury, listings everything he hates about the idea of golf and golfers, before becoming a golfer himself, and the most heartfelt essay is about his father's Alzheimer's. There's also a piece about hunting that is graphic at times, but also explains his stance.
Even if you think you aren't interested in the subject he's writing about, Gill could hold the reader's attention because he had such an unpredictable, original voice. ( )

The first half of this book did not work for me at all it was rather boring. The second half proved why A.A. Gill is the best travel writer currently writing. All of the stories were top notch. ( )

Basically what zmagic69's review said - fantastic travel writing in the second half of this book as good as anything I've ever read, but with a unique angle that was thought provoking and at times hilarious too read. The first half was a struggle though - some interesting articles but others that just meandered out and shouldn't have been included. I'm a very recent convert to Mr Gill's writing having only been aware of this food criticisms previously but will be borrowing his other works from the library - esp travel related as these were so entertaining. ( )

The first half of this book did not work for me at all it was rather boring. The second half proved why A.A. Gill is the best travel writer currently writing. All of the stories were top notch. ( )

There’s not much to say about this that I didn’t already say in my brief review of A.A. Gill Is Away. Gill is a travelling journalist (as opposed to a “travel writer”) who pens short articles that are both very funny and very serious. This compendium (which at least three separate people mistook for Bear Grylls’ autobiography; personally I think he more closely resembles Ralph Fiennes) sees him wandering around Glastonbury, reflecting on Edward Hopper, examining the wonderful contents of the Royal Geographic Society, seeing somebody murdered in the slums of Haiti, training to be a bush guide in South Africa, and much, much more. Each chapter is titled with a location, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a travel piece – ‘New York,’ for example, is about gyms:

The great misconception about gyms is that they’re palaces of vanity, theatres of self love, where the shallow preen and pump in front of ten-foot mirrors with devoted narcissism. Actually, it’s precisely the opposite. Gyms vibrate with self-loathing and doubt. The mirrors mock. People come because they’re disgusted by or frightened of their bodies. Going to a gym is an admission of failure. It’s the realisation that you’re not forever youthfully regenerating. Your body isn’t a temple to fun and fornication anymore; it’s a decrepit, leaky, condemned shell that is decomposing faster than you can shore it up.

Gill is one of the best, funniest, and most honest and most distinctively voiced journalists working today, and all his output is well worth reading. ( )