heart and head

June 2006: Discovery of A.A. Gill, journalist extraordinaire with the pen sharp as nettle, with the gift of words that stay, stinging in the air, long after you've put him down.

September 2007: Re-discovery of A.A. Gill after a long time away, mentally, from the love of words and new discoveries. I am glad to be back.

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Here's A.A. Gill on the art of criticism:

'(Cyril Connolly's) writing is precise and elegant, but never effete or pedantic. Rather muscly and exuberant, it fizzes and sings with enthusiasm. All memorable, worthwhile criticism grows out of enthusiasm. It can never be the schoolmaster's dry marginalia or the collector's pursed lips and raised brow; only if you love something can you be transported when it's done beautifully, and infuriated when it's made badly. Great criticism is cerebral and emotional. But it is the head that is the passenger and reads the map, and the heart that has the wheel.


(from 'Foreword', Previous Convictions)
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