The Angry Island: Hunting the English

by A.A. Gill

The English are naturally, congenitally, collectively and singularly, livid much of the time. In between the incoherent bellowing of the terraces and the pursed, rigid eye-rolling of the commuter carriage, they reach the end of their tethers and the thin end of their wedges. They're incensed, incandescent, splenetic, prickly, touchy and fractious. They sit apart on their half of a damply disappointing little island, nursing and picking at their irritations. Perhaps aware that they're living on top of a keg of fulminating fury, the English have, throughout their history, come up with hundreds of ingenious and bizarre ways to diffuse anger or transform it into something benign. Good manners and queues, roundabouts and garden sheds, and almost every game ever invented from tennis to bridge. They've built things, discovered stuff, made puddings, written hymns and novels, and for people who don't like to talk much, they have come up with the most minutely nuanced and replete language ever spoken - just so there'll be no misunderstandings. In this hugely witty, personal and readable book, AA Gill looks anger and the English straight in the eye.

Genres: Nonfiction, Travel, Humor, British Literature, Essays, Literature, History

256 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 10, 2004

About the author

Adrian Anthony Gill was an English journalist. He was the author of 9 books, including The Angry Island. He was the TV and restaurant critic and a regular features writer for The Sunday Times, a columnist for Esquire, and a contributor to Vanity Fair. He lived in London.

Reviews

[Helen Edwards · Rating 1 out of 5]

I really like Adrian Gill's writing so was looking forward to reading what I thought would be an amusing book about the English and their foibles. However, I didn't finish this book because it rather stuck in my craw that a man who spent almost the entirety of his life in England, married two English women, had two English children saw fit to heap bile on the English.

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

"England's default setting is anger: lapel-poking, Chinese-burning, ram-raiding, street-shouting, sniping, spitting, shoving,vengeful, inventive rage. But many of the traits and tics that make the English so singular and occasionally admirable are the deflective mechanisms that they've invented to diffuse anger. The tolls and speed bumps and diversions of anger. Not giving in to your nature is very English, clinging on, white-knuckled, bottling the urges, refusing to slide into spittle-flecked release of snarling national fury.

The simplest and most straightforwards way to replace the pin is an apology. The S-word."

"There is: sorry, I apologize; sorry, I don't apologize; sorry, you can take this as an apology, but we both know it isn't one; sorry, will you shut up; sorry, empathy; sorry for your loss; sorry, I can't hear you; sorry, incredulity; sorry, I don't understand you; sorry, you don't understand me; sorry, excuse me; sorry, will you hurry up; sorry, I don't believe you; sorry, I'm interrupting; sorry, this won't do; sorry, I've reached the end of my patience; sorry, sad and pathetic--as in, sorry excuse or sorry little man...Sorry is a prophylactic word. It protects the user and the recipient from the potentially explosive consequences of the truth."

[Erik · Rating 3 out of 5]

Most foreign observers of the English – like American Bill Bryson – typically focus on the charm or silliness of British culture and manners. But Gill, a native who originally hails from Scotland (despite his Received Pronunciation accent today), skewers his homeland and culture in a take-no-prisoners way. He’s cruel, never to be kind. (My apologies to the Bard of Avon.)

Gill’s strongest criticism about his native land is the English propensity to romanticize the past. He completely dismantles the “golden age” mentality of his countrymen and woman whenever they think nostalgically about the Victorian period and those halcyon days when the UK was an empire on which the sun never set. He also has many an unkind word about the English countryside. According to Gill, the gently rolling fields and hedgerows that blanket the landscape mask a dark and in-bred rural society. (And if you’ve ever seen the wickedly funny League of Gentlemen series from the BBC, you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about here.)

Oddly, this most caustic of cultural critics was awarded a place – or portrait, really –earlier this decade in London’s National Portrait Gallery. (One of my favorite haunts when I’m in town, by the by.) Even if Gill’s criticism of his island and fellow Brits is true, let it be known that they adore him nonetheless. And can have a laugh at themselves, to boot.

[Elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

A.A.Gill protests too much, of course, ascribing much of his own sham anger to the English that he describes. This makes for cuttingly witty prose, but after a few chapters, it does get to be a bit one-note. Gill is at his best where he engages in serious cultual criticism, as in his discussion of British war monuments, or the vestigial class system that continues to affect many people's daily reality. So, an instructive and often entertaining read, but not one I'll return to often. (As a side note, after reading both this book and Jon Ronson's The Psychopath Test, I want to know more about their feud!)

[Debra Komar · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars. I love AA Gill's pieces in Vanity Fair and was curious what his longer-form writing might be like. He has witty wordplay and can turn a sharp phrase. This was a little too sharp for me - there is a not very fine line between sarcasm and racism and unfortunately Gill spends too much time on the wrong side of that line. His hatred of the English is not satire or good-natured; it's a very real anger that fuels some very real attacks.

The collection of essays touch on a truly bewildering array of topics. The better pieces are the more personal ones, where Gill himself is the subject rather than the people of England. Rough stuff. Can't say I'd recommend it.

[Rose]

Just very, very, annoying (does that prove his hypothesis?). I read this based on a quote for it that I thought was very true, but the book failed to live up to this in a big way. Excessive generalisations and dodgy conclusions abound, with the book full of stupidities like: "When I got back to London a week after the announcement that London had won the bid, no one mentioned the Olympics, it had become rather embarrassing" (or just maybe the horrendous terrorist attack London experienced just after the announcement took people's minds off the Olympics somewhat).

[Kate · Rating 2 out of 5]

Done. I can pretty much predict what he will say at this point and it is not worth my time to read anymore. I just don't want to spend any more time with this writer. I got this book out of the library and it looks like it has been on the shelves for 13 years and while people check it out, they send it back. I like a clean library book more than most but sometimes the ones that are grimy are grimy because everyone who checks them out loves them to pieces. Others may disagree but I have so many interesting books to read that I am moving on.

[Paul Winter Solstice · Rating 1 out of 5]

I saw recommendation of this book somewhere and borrowed it from the library. What a trash it turned out to be! The author just keeps showing off his command of rare archaic words to express his bigoted ideas. The first few chapters were particularly horrible! But being a person who does not give up easily, I trudged through the whole book. Oh, gosh, what a torture!

[Mary · Rating 1 out of 5]

A strangely hate filled, bullying, jealous, angry rant against the English, whic isveverything he claims the English are and yet he doesn't seem to recognise any of those characteristics in himself. Identifies himself as a Scot despite living and being educated in England and never choosing to live in Scotland. Deluded.

[Lysergius · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of essays about the English. Gill's premise is that they are an angry people, hence the title, besotted with nostalgia, and "things ain't what they used to be". His description of the National Trust is classic. A fine angry rant solidly based on observation and first hand experience.

[Gavin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wrong of course, but in the good way.

[Mac · Rating 2 out of 5]

Miserablist trash, much more of a reflection on the author than on the English (though perhaps that's part of the point)

[Mo · Rating 5 out of 5]

I do miss his wit and cynicism. He is the journalist we really need right now.
This book is a great take on English culture and why it mystifies us from other places and cultures. His eye for the small details is unique and brilliantly displayed in this tome.

[Tosh · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's interesting to read what an Englishman thinks of England and its people. And in the case of A.A. Gill, he doesn't like his fellow citizens that much. Yet, there is a certain amount of grace and understanding of his fellow Brits. But nevertheless this is sort of a sad book. Especially the drinking part of the book, which is also a big part of contemporary British culture.

As an American I find the U.K. fascinating. We speak the same (sort of ) language, yet culturally we are so far apart. I am not sure how English critics looked at this book, and there were parts that wasn't interesting to me. But still, Gill is a good writer and he takes you from point A to point B. But sometimes the actual journey is not that interesting.

[Patrice Sartor · Rating 1 out of 5]

I made it to page 30 before giving up. I don't want to read any more about what Mr. Gill thinks about England and its people, and I couldn't even finish the chapter about postcards and portraits. Zzz. While I found the subject matter dull, I didn't think Gill was a terrible writer. Yet I was hoping he would be clever and witty, and he was neither. Maybe it's *me*, but since I am a member of ALL (Anonymous Literary Losers--though I guess I'm not so anonymous any more), I get a pass. If you're anxious to read a lot of (possibly harsh) opinions and stereotyping on the English and England, give it a try.

[Dana · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was awful. The author came across as an angry Jock who is extremely bitter about the fact that he lives in England, and uses unnecessarily big words to ramble nonsense and whinge about the English. I'll never get those minutes of my life back that I spent trying to read this book, and now I'm the angry, bitter one.

[Sean Keefe · Rating 1 out of 5]

Found the whole thing completely up its own backside. It began with a lengthy piece discussing portraits, presuming that the reader intimately knows each portrait by name. Sad to say, my weariness with the dreary prose meant I couldn't finish it. Elitist, self - opinionated rubbish. The world needs more forests, let's stop cutting 'em down to print this crap.

[Davidberlin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought A A Gill was the most English of English but it seems he is a Scot and therefore has an outsider's view of the English as a people. But it is as if he is forcing himself to be critical of the English... ultimately he is attacking traits in himself.

[Gavin Dobson · Rating 1 out of 5]

A clever-clever book that makes you laugh & groan in equal measure, like Bill Bryson on steroids. The author's conceit is exhausting. There are many witty turns of phrase but all that remains of this Cheshire cat by the end of the book is an empty sneer.

[Carol · Rating 2 out of 5]

he's a bit irritating. bill bryson's commentary on England is much better.

[Theadra Chapman · Rating 1 out of 5]

didn't finish. wanted it to be more like "the English" - an imformative, social look on the culture and people. It was more pithy, short, chapters. Is this a collection of articles?

[Kevin · Rating 3 out of 5]

The rant version of Watching the English. This one's for a train ride, take Kate Fox to the beach.

[not that whiskey · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found it difficult to buy into Gill's faux-Scotsman, outsider perspective and, over the course of the book, he struggles to maintain the brio that make his reviews so enjoyable.

[Jo · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book made me so angry :D Not really. It's a bunch of tired cliches masquerading as humourous observations. A lot of what he says could relate to people of various nations, not just us English.

[Amanda · Rating 2 out of 5]

Why so angry? I was not amused.

[Samantha Allum · Rating 1 out of 5]

Mr Gill, people who look down on other people don’t end up being looked up to.

[Mark Farley · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book from the late Adrian Gill is far reaching literary angst and fury masquerading as wit (which is right down my street) but the man is clearly smug, arrogant and self-serving in his livid rambles here. Although I do admire a fellow's general cynicism and pessimism. Those are qualities I look for in the curmudgeonly human race in general, but this guy borders on the psychopathic as the Scotsman tries to study our quirks, habits and ways.

I was mildly amused by his experience at the Whitby Goth Festival (my neck of the woods) and his quip, "Mostly, they look bored and fat and cold and misinformed..." though, that made me chuckle.

Nowhere as good as the book it was attempting to be, the excellent 'Watching the English' by Kate Fox. I would skip this and go there instead.

[Jet Khasriya · Rating 3 out of 5]

i picked this up and read the first two chapters in the book shop. i found it funny and it grabbed my interest as it appeared to be developing into a travellers diary as I understand many of Gill’s other books are. a very informative and humorous book, it sort-of loses its way nearer the end and becomes harder to read. it seems overly negative and damning of certain aspects of the British disposition. it is certainly rich with the authors experience which rings true of my own (less extreme) life in England. definitely worth a read, Gill is a great writer.

[T · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars
This book of essays about England starts off strong. The best chapters Face, Voice, Class, Memorials, Cotswolds are towards the beginning. The essays then gradually become less interesting.
This is a writer unafraid to offend, and all the better for it.
The best observation: "Regional accents in America are regional from top to bottom, though they may be stronger or thicker in working-class mouths, but essentially you speak the same as everyone around you. Not so the English."

[Phil · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the third AA Gill book I’ve read and enjoyed. For some reason I seem to have a love/hate relationship with England, and one time even managed to find myself alone in London on Christmas Day. (Buy me a pint or three and I’ll recount the saga for you.) This book relies heavily on stereotypes so it’s sure to both amuse and offend. But if you seek an uninhibited and very non-PC rant on England, then The Angry Island will not disappoint. 3.5 stars.