Gill's assignments have taken him around the world in pursuit of the great stand-first: a visit to the worst place in the world (the Aral Sea), how to write a porno film in a weekend and the joys of owning a Rolls Royce. In accordance with what is clearly a whistle-stop lifestyle, his book takes us all over the world: to Sudan, Bethlehem, Los Angeles, Patagonia--and Wilmslow in Cheshire. His writing is usually acute and provocative, and the various African articles are particularly sharp as he rails against the creeping colonialism perpetuated by aid agencies and international finance, and the crass priorities of drug companies whose profits are in Prozac and not cures for malaria or sleeping sickness.

Inevitably with a ragbag collection of this sort, the quality of the pieces vary. At times, you feel that Gill has dragged out his copy for his editors, and at others there is a surfeit of metaphors in which Gill tries too hard to be funny. But his trademark fury polishes his prose, which usually retains its sharpness and succeeds in conveying the thrill of immediacy without which no travel writing can sparkle. --Toby Green --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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A. A. Gill is probably the most read columnist in Britain. Every weekend he entertains readers of the SUNDAY TIMES with his biting observations on television and his unsparing, deeply knowledgeable restaurant reviews. Even those who want to hate him agree: A. A. Gill is hopelessly, painfully funny. He is one of a tiny band of must-read journalists and it is always a disappointment when the words 'A.A. Gill is Away' appear at the foot of his column. This book is the fruit of those absences: 22 long travel pieces that belie his reputation as a mere style journalist and master of vitriol: this is travel writing of the highest quality and ambition.

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