Here and There: Collected Travel Writings

A.A. Gill (2011)
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THE A5 BOOK REVIEW

Here and There is a collection of travel pieces from the late A.A. Gill, selected from his monthly column in Gourmet Traveller.  As usual with Gill, his observations are unique, edgy, astute, moving and hilarious.  His travels include an annual trip to the Scottish Highlands, the weekly markets in southern France, Siena, Italy for the Palio, Vienna, Norway, Budapest, Greenland, Bombay, Calcutta, Johannesburg, Ghana, and a desert refugee camp in Chad.  He also comments on the nature of travel; how people pack, the oddness of airports, the division between those who love sun and those who don’t, the importance of smell, and the inevitable disappointment in a Swedish massage.  Gill can occasionally offend, but all in all Here and There is a funny and insightful book, and a top recommendation for those who love to travel.
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OTHER A5 RECOMMENDED TRAVEL BOOKS - A.A. GILL

A.A. Gill was a noted British writer and critic, known for his column in The Sunday Times on travel and cultures.  He has published several collections of travel writing, most notably AA Gill is away. Gill unfortunately passed away in 2016 after a very public bout with cancer.  Learn more about A.A. Gill here.

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GREAT QUOTES FROM HERE AND THERE: COLLECTED TRAVEL WRITINGS

“One of the things that fascinates me about travelling is how places make people.  The received travel writing wisdom is always the other way around: it's people who make places, who go out and carve nations from the rough, speechless, thoughtless wilderness.  But over and over I'm aware that the characteristics and beliefs of nations seem to flow from the land, seep up from the earth..”

"Bombay is a city where it's impossible to avoid people.  Indeed, the defining grace and glory of the whole subcontinent is its people.  The teaming, steaming great masterpiece of humanity.  Every vista, every angle has a cast of thousands, and Bombay is one of its principal joys.  It's not a beautiful city, not in the man-made sense, not in the Venice or Prague sense, although it has many spectacular parts.  Its attraction lies in the throb and hum of its population."

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