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AA Gill takes prize for savaging Morrissey

By | Published on Thursday 13 February 2014

Morrissey

Sunday Times critic AA Gill has taken the Hatchet Job Of The Year prize for his critique of Morrissey’s ‘Autobiography’. Set up by The Omnivore website in 2012, the award is given to “the writer of the angriest, funniest, most trenchant book review of the past twelve months”.

Staving off competition from fellow Sunday Times reviewer Donna Tarrt, amongst others, Gill took the crown by describing Moz’s life story as “450 pages of what makes Morrissey, but nothing of what Morrissey makes”, concluding: “There are many pop autobiographies that shouldn’t be written. Some to protect the unwary reader, and some to protect the author. In Morrissey’s case, he has managed both. This is a book that cries out like one of his maudlin ditties to be edited. But were an editor to start, there would be no stopping”.

It seems fitting that Gill should take the prize for writing about Morrissey, given that both men, while occasionally amusing, are ultimately self-important wankers.

But, hey, Morrissey gets the last laugh, because I’m going to conclude this story by talking about two US shows he’s just announced. According to his semi-official website True To You, he will play the Los Angeles Sports Arena on 10 May and Barclays Center in New York on 21 Jun. Singer-songwriter Kristeen Young will be on first at both shows, while support in LA will come from Tom Jones and in NY from Cliff Richard.

Yes, I know that seems terribly unlikely, but we fired off some emails and got this back from Jones’s management: “I have no idea about the Cliff date, but I can confirm Sir Tom will be a special guest at Morrissey’s gig on 10 May”.

So, there you go.



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