A. McCafrey

Advantages: Winnie the Pooh!
Disadvantages: Not enough people know Latin... yet!

...angustias incurrit), when Piglet meets a heffalump (heffalumpum), meeting Kanga and Roo (Canga and Ru), the expedition to the North Pole (Palum Septentrionalem), and finally saying goodbye, the entire story and text is here. One can (as I do) set the Dell Yearling 60th Anniversary Version of Winnie-the-Pooh side-by-side with Winnie-ille-Pu and follow line by line the engaging story, which translates well into this one-time universal language. And why ever not? Surely if there is a story nearly universal appeal, it would be of dear Winnie. As A.A. Milne was a graduate of the Westminster School (which is housed down the block from my old Parliamentary offices) and of Cambridge, he might consider the translation of his classic work into the classical language a signal honour, and one wonders if, given the fact that Milne studied classical... Read review

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Advantages: Stunning insights into unknown places
Disadvantages: Could do without the laddish element

...Not being a Times reader, and even if I were: not being a TV or restaurant critique reader, I may never have come across A.A. Gill - except maybe via Jeremy Clarkson (in whom I take a shameful juvenile delight!). Mr Gill, I'm sure, is suitably albeit insignificantly pleased that I came to his words without his friend & sometime co-author's assistance. Jeremy, I'm equally sure, couldn't give a whatsit. "AA Gill is away" is a collection of traveller's tales from the years 1995 to 2001. As reproduced magazine pieces they are necessarily short, and self-contained. They are, to steal a word from my musician friends, tight. They are full of humour and rancour and personal insight and - just occasionally - incomprehension. They are unapologetically personal, political, take-it-or-leave-it-this-is-my-take-on-it journalism... Read review

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Advantages: Sharp observation, superb wordcraft
Disadvantages: Don't expect balance

...It's no good. I need to find fault with Mr Gill. My reputation as an objective reviewer will be totally shot if I simply fall in the traditional "I'm not worthy" pose at his feet, which is what I felt I did with my last attempt to review a collection of his articles. [See: A A Gill Is Away] I do try. I fail. Except that maybe the cover photograph of Mr Gill pretending to be Wilfred Thesiger - stunning and gorgeous though it (he) is - is slightly misleading. If you've ever read the man in newsprint, you'll know that he has nothing of the panache of the earlier writer-explorers. Quite apart from whatever loss of kudos you get from hanging around with Mr Clarkson (a splendid gent in his own way, but not quite explorer-cool) - Gill is man enough to admit when he is, not to put to fine a point on it, sh*t scared... Read review

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