A.A. Gill's Blog

AA Gill: A farewell to Africa

All holidays are invocations of other trips, real and imagined. Past holidays; the promise of holidays; gossip, snaps, Instagrams and advertisements. The tangible realisation of racks of bikinis and sunglasses, the unctions of suntan oil and mosquito spray. ���Dream��� is the most wantonly overused word in all holiday brochures, and...

Once you see a refugee���s face, you can���t turn away

On the path below my window Nicola is teaching our twins to ride bikes. Isaac gets it almost immediately; after a few skiddy wobbles he pedals away from his mother���s protective hand and zigzags towards the horizon, shoulders hunched, legs swimming in air, discovering as we all must that riding...

And suddenly there she was: my baby, my missing piece

No award, no medal, no mountain peak, no victory could compare with the moment you become a parent. I remember exactly where I was when I learnt I was going to be a father for the first time and exactly what I felt ��� a stupefied disbelief, a numb terror.

God has all the best cakes, and he���s never rejected my prayers

And then there���s God. I am a reluctant Christian. I was once interviewed by Lynn Barber and I told her I was a Christian but not a homosexual . . . she didn���t believe either. ���You can���t be a Christian,��� she said, in her parlour maid���s voice, ���you just can���t.���

���You���re the bravest or stupidest man in all of Ireland���

My American cousin Wendy, a photographer who likes to organise cross-party photography in conflict zones, thought Northern Ireland would be fun and inspirational, and asked me to go with her on a recce. This was the 1980s; it was particularly murderous there ��� a lot of bombs, a lot of...

AA Gill: ���More life with your kids, more life with your friends, more life spent on earth ��� but only if you pay���

It seems unlikely, uncharacteristic, so un-���us��� to have settled on sickness and bed rest as the votive altar and cornerstone of national politics. But there it is: every election, the National Health Service is the thermometer and the crutch of governments. The NHS represents everything we think is best about...

AA Gill on Ireland, rain and the English Market

Every time I go to Ireland, I think two things. First, why on earth don���t I come to Ireland more often? And second, I���d come to Ireland more often if it ever stopped raining. And third (tree tings): isn���t it exhausting for the Irish being so relentlessly friendly? ���Ah, now...

AA Gill on television: The disposable giants of the modern world

This week���s programmes The Brits Who Designed the Modern World BBC2, Sat Life and Death the Pentecostal Way BBC2, Sun The Last Miners BBC1, Mon What Britain Earns C4, Tue

The art of gifting: AA Gill untangles the rules

You never know when you might find this useful. Should you ever receive a gift from a Kalahari Bushman, here���s a piece of etiquette you should know. There will be a moment, when he hands it to you, where he will try to tug it back. Don���t drop it or...

AA Gill on television: Brace yourself: they���ve found another gear

This week���s programmes The Grand Tour Amazon Prime NW BBC2, Mon My Mother and Other Strangers BBC1, Sun Close to the Enemy BBC2, Thu