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A. A. Gill Writer

Adrian Anthony Gill (born 28 June 1954 in Edinburgh) is a British writer and critic who uses the bylines A. A. Gill and AA Gill. He is The Sunday Times' restaurant reviewer as well as a television critic; he is also a Vanity Fair restaurant reviewer. Gill wrote his first piece for Tatler in 1991, and joined The Sunday Times in 1993.Gill, who has caused offence to various racial groups, was the subject of 62 Press Complaints Commission (PCC) complaints in the five years to July 2010. One case, in regard to his review of Clare Balding's Britain by Bike received strong criticism, including "Gill's reference to TV journalist Clare Balding as 'a dyke on a bike' ... was pejorative, demeaning and gratuitous" The Sunday Times editor John Witherow had replied to Ms. Balding "In my view some members of the gay community need to stop regarding themselves as having a special victim status and behave like any other sensible group that is accepted by society" in his defence of Gill. The PCC upheld the complaint made by Balding stating “Freedom of expression is a key part of an open society and something which the Commission has defended robustly in the past. While the commentator is clearly entitled to his opinion about both the programme and the complainant, there are restraints placed upon him by the terms of the Editors’ Code. Clause 12 is very clear that newspapers must avoid prejudicial, pejorative or irrelevant reference to an individual’s sexual orientation and the reference to Miss Balding plainly breached its terms.”