- Hardcover: 288 pages
- Publisher: Orion; HARDBACK EDITION edition (10 Nov 2005)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0297843184
- ISBN-13: 978-0297843184
- Product Dimensions: 23.6 x 14.4 x 3.2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (30 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 400,311 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
The Angry Island: Hunting the English
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Product Description
Review
his prose floats like a butterfly and stings like a bee and, just when you least expect it, lands a deft and lethal blow beneath the belt. (Terence Blacker THE SUNDAY TIMES )
the author is on typically quick-witted form. (Jim Blackburn WANDERLUST )
one can admire the zest of the writing and applaud its splendid lack of political correctness. (Beryl Bainbridge THE MAIL ON SUNDAY )
he writes beautifully. His chapter on war memorials should be a set text, his defence of political correctness is bold and true, and he really nails the philosophy of the queue. (Peter Watts TIME OUT )
the author is on typically quick-witted form. (Jim Blackburn WANDERLUST )
one can admire the zest of the writing and applaud its splendid lack of political correctness. (Beryl Bainbridge THE MAIL ON SUNDAY )
he writes beautifully. His chapter on war memorials should be a set text, his defence of political correctness is bold and true, and he really nails the philosophy of the queue. (Peter Watts TIME OUT )
Beryl Bainbridge, THE MAIL ON SUNDAY
'one can admire the zest of the writing and applaud its splendid lack of political correctness.'
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
10 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I bought, and read this book because I heard it praised on a radio programme. It turned out to be a very patchy read with some excellent moments set among boring half hours. Much of it reads as though a journalist has broken free from an editor and is taking his chance to show off his extensive vocabulary. Streams of long adjectives precede the nouns. Triplicate nouns are used to show that Mr. Gill can afford a thesaurus and is not afraid to use it. The book badly needs an editor to cut it down to size.
Occasionally he can be very funny. But when he is being witty (he tells us he is far too lofty for jokes) he seems to sneer at his countrymen. He condemns their snobbery, but indulges in snobbery himself. He slates their narrow emotional range, but shows little variation in emotion himself. He invites us to laugh at their prejudices, but his book show he is far from being an open-minded man. It's a book of bile and spite.
Mr. Gill has viewed the English nation and found it to be a mirror for his mood. He sees the English as an angry bunch. This is an excuse for him to exhibit his anger, and he is a very angry man. The book is a talented sixth former's transcription of a spoilt toddler's tantrum. If you find anger funny, by all means buy it. If you want to understand the English go for Welcome to Everytown: A Journey into the English Mind, a far better, more thoughtful book by Julian Baggini.
Occasionally he can be very funny. But when he is being witty (he tells us he is far too lofty for jokes) he seems to sneer at his countrymen. He condemns their snobbery, but indulges in snobbery himself. He slates their narrow emotional range, but shows little variation in emotion himself. He invites us to laugh at their prejudices, but his book show he is far from being an open-minded man. It's a book of bile and spite.
Mr. Gill has viewed the English nation and found it to be a mirror for his mood. He sees the English as an angry bunch. This is an excuse for him to exhibit his anger, and he is a very angry man. The book is a talented sixth former's transcription of a spoilt toddler's tantrum. If you find anger funny, by all means buy it. If you want to understand the English go for Welcome to Everytown: A Journey into the English Mind, a far better, more thoughtful book by Julian Baggini.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
First and foremost, this book is a work of genius. A. A. Gill is the funniest man I have every read and his prose strikingly powerful. Woe to Dr. Johnson, for the tide has fully turned! No other outsider but a Scot could have produced such an insightful and vindictive condemnation of the English.
There is a great deal of silliness about Gill, but as he remarks, the best humour is always deeply serious, and it is his underlying seriousness that gives this book such force. One of the great points of pride of the English is their sense of humour, and here Gill finds them at their most revealing. The English trivialization of day to day existence is shown as being a defence mechanism against the heavy psychological repression of their society. Such repression has allowed the English to achieve great things, and has often been characterized by kindness, tolerance, and self-discipline. However, it has come at a very heavy personal cost indeed, and Gill lays out in detail the idiosyncrasies, and anger that lie behind it.
(It was interesting to read the Guardian's review of this book, which immediately trivialized it, by turning it into a joke, without any real discussion of the content. How typical.)
As a Canadian of English descent, living in the French province of Quebec, I have always been intrigued by the deep cultural and social differences that exist between our two founding ethnic groups. Compounding this intrigue is the existence next door of another anglo culture, the Americans. Traits such as overt and complex individualism, social conservatism, anti-intellectualism, and cultural philistinism, have marked North American anglo culture. Gill's book has better helped me better relate these traits to their roots in the UK.
There is a great deal of silliness about Gill, but as he remarks, the best humour is always deeply serious, and it is his underlying seriousness that gives this book such force. One of the great points of pride of the English is their sense of humour, and here Gill finds them at their most revealing. The English trivialization of day to day existence is shown as being a defence mechanism against the heavy psychological repression of their society. Such repression has allowed the English to achieve great things, and has often been characterized by kindness, tolerance, and self-discipline. However, it has come at a very heavy personal cost indeed, and Gill lays out in detail the idiosyncrasies, and anger that lie behind it.
(It was interesting to read the Guardian's review of this book, which immediately trivialized it, by turning it into a joke, without any real discussion of the content. How typical.)
As a Canadian of English descent, living in the French province of Quebec, I have always been intrigued by the deep cultural and social differences that exist between our two founding ethnic groups. Compounding this intrigue is the existence next door of another anglo culture, the Americans. Traits such as overt and complex individualism, social conservatism, anti-intellectualism, and cultural philistinism, have marked North American anglo culture. Gill's book has better helped me better relate these traits to their roots in the UK.
14 of 16 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
To indict this book for being subjective is beside the point; Gill never pretends to be other than subjective. That said, he is remarkably erudite, and the volume is full of interesting facts as well as opinions. I'm tempted to call Gill the Martin Amis of the travel essay, or the essay of cultural observation; his style is frequently over-the-top, even to the point of splenetic, but the guy is so intelligent you have to sit back and enjoy it. And he seems right on to me on so many things, including the barely contained anger that seems to pervade the people of this nation--and the fact that they have made repression into a fundamental character trait. As an American married to an Englishman, I have one other thing to thank him for: helping to explain my in-laws!
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
"A Grumpy Old Man"
A.A Gill has often appeared on BBC television as a participant in the amusing programme GRUMPY OLD MEN. Read more
Published 12 months ago by Disgruntled admirer
Angry Island review
I left the Angry Island because.. well.. because it made me angry. I've since realised of course that most of that comes from within. Read more
Published 18 months ago by Martin Hayes
This is hilarious
Okay, this isn't a travelogue or historical analysis of the English exactly. Gill gets to visit a handful of locations if that: Hadrian's Wall, London's Soho, Letchworth Garden... Read more
Published 18 months ago by Mr. C. Morris
Snore
If you like über-cynical prose laden with ludicrous sneering generalisations and written by an author with a suffocating superiority complex, then this is the book for you.
Published 20 months ago by Hieronymous
Fee Fi Fo Fum: Know Thyself Englishman
A.A. Gill is sufficiently well travelled and sufficiently Scottish to joyfully rip into Englishness.
He qualifies his opinions as, just that, opinions. Read more
He qualifies his opinions as, just that, opinions. Read more
Published on 4 May 2010 by Mr. N. Foale
Hunting the English
A.A. Gill, best known as a food writer who has courted controversy with outspoken published views of the Welsh amongst others in the past , here deconstructs various aspects of the... Read more
Published on 18 July 2009 by M. J. Pollock
Ultimately it runs out of steam
I loved this book when I started reading it - in places it's laugh out loud funny and the chapter on Memorials was as good as the review (that made me buy the book) suggested. Read more
Published on 17 July 2009 by Simon
A Confused book.
In the end it was the very last section of this book that did it for me, made it clear why it had confused me. The last section is an index. Read more
Published on 17 May 2009 by SCM
hunting AA Gill
Is there such a thing as 'national character'? probably not, at least according to sociologists. But this isnt a book about facts its a book of opinions which Gill wisely states... Read more
Published on 29 May 2008 by Oliver Wood
Uncomfortable but pretty much spot on
This book sparked all sorts of reactions within me. I was determined to let Gill confront my own short comings for me and, by the end, my teeth were practically worn away with all... Read more
Published on 17 May 2008 by JRG
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