The Angry Island: Hunting the English (Hardcover)

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Key Phrases: new ruralists, The Angry Island, Received Pronunciation, National Portrait Gallery (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

He writes for the London Sunday Times and lives in Britain, but rapier-wit social critic Gill wants readers of this provocatively perceptive dissection of English cultural mores to know he was born a Scotsman, thank you very much, and is most definitely not an "enigmatically indecipherable" Englishman. In 16 defiantly abrasive essays, Gill bristles with outrageous originality about cliched topics like England's class system ("unfair, cruel, and above all smug"); gardening ("the great English cultural expression"); British accents ("a never-ending source of subtle snobbery"); and kindness to animals ("gives them an excuse to patronize, bully, and be psychologically spiteful to other people"). Elsewhere, he balances droll bombast with surprising outbursts of admiration for the British way. He's a fan of the nation's war memorials, praising them, without a hint of sarcasm, as sublime expressions of the "exhausted relief" that shrouded England after the First World War. And he admires the country's propensity for queues, concluding that the Second World War was won—or not lost—through the orderly evacuation by both navy destroyers and rowboats after the disastrous battle of Dunkirk. Gill's caustic ruminations often veer into over-the-top hyperbole, but these essays, brimming with incendiary certitude, also offer nuggets of truth. (June)
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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 --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster (June 12, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1416531734
• ISBN-13: 978-1416531739
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.8 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #750,567 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant..beautiful, funny and heartfelt, June 12, 2007

By	Anthony M. Bourdain (new york city) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

The previous reviewer should have read the book. Mr. Gill's descriptions of British War memorials are almost unfailingly admiring--and constitute some of the best writing in the book. Angry Island is both acerbic, precise and hilariously funny social commentary--and a heartfelt cry for reason. Hyperbolic, cruel--and yet true enough. It's the sympathy and humanism peeking out from inside Gill's silk-lined jacket that makes him such a great essayist, another splendidly failed idealist--like Orwell or Hunter Thompson.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Brits from within, July 28, 2007

By	Jon Hunt "musician, teacher" (Old Greenwich, Ct. USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Make no bones about it....A.A. Gill does not consider himself to be British even though he has lived amongst them all of his life. He's a Scot and from the beginning this difference as well as other nations' comparisons are wryly and often harshly drawn out. This is a wonder of a book and probably the first book I've read that isn't propelled by nouns and verbs. "The Angry Island" is all about adjectives, spiced up with a lot of invective. From page one, I couldn't put it down for a minute.

The author covers a wide range of topics about which to consider the Brits...their history, humour, class, voice, sport, drink and so on. At almost every turn, Gill pummels away. There is a rogues gallery of portraits of English kings and queens, described by Gill in various ways of contempt. The narrative gets really juicy as he relates the British "soul" (or lack, thereof) and his ability to write memorable phrases is outstanding. When, for instance, he speaks of the quintessential British fondness for gardening, he asks why we don't ever see people in those gardens. (Gardens do, apparently, make great final resting places for the dead) A typical Gill comment is this one, regarding why Brits are always queueing up. He says, "the English queue because they have to. If they didn't, they'd kill each other". And in a terrific chapter about nostalgia, Gill reminds us that the word itself, didn't exist before 1900. It didn't have to. But then again, the Empire was about to fall apart, hence the current nostalgia. Everything was better in your parent's generation, of course, than it is today.

"The Angry Island" is not just one tirade after another. Gill compliments the British on their memorials, especially those commemorating the "Great War." And in a personal chapter, while reporting that the English love their drink to the point of besottedness, he reveals his own alcoholism. It's a poignant moment in an otherwise stormy book.

The author does have a knack for the use of adjectives and they abound in "The Angry Island", making the read all the more enjoyable. But it's his ability to peel back the layers of this overly-composed nation to get at what is really either wrong or funny (or both!) about the seemingly most uptight people in the world. To this end, I highly recommend "The Angry Island". It may not make one understand the British any better, but then again, it just may.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars The English In The Crosshairs, August 5, 2007

By	E. G. Defrin (Amenia, New York United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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The English have always been the targets of humorous criticism and Mr. Gill's book rightly rakes them over the coals. His extremely witty take makes for enjoyable reading even for Anglofiles. That being said,Gill doesn't know when to stop. The first half is funny , and I assume, true, but he keeps on going telling the same joke over and over again. Enough already!