AA Gill dead aged 62 just weeks after top food critic revealed he was suffering ‘an embarrassment of cancer’
Sunday Times editor pays tribute saying Gill's 'writing was dazzling and fearless, his intelligence was matched by compassion'
TOP food writer AA Gill has died just weeks after revealing he was suffering from an 'embarrassment of cancer'.
Three weeks ago the 62-year-old dad-of-four said: “I’ve got an embarrassment of cancer, the full English. I have a trucker’s gut-buster, gimpy, malevolent, meaty malignancy.”
Gill had written for The Sunday Times since 1993 and his final article, about coming to terms with his cancer, will be published tomorrow.
A statement from Sunday Times editor Martin Ivens said: "It is with profound sadness that I must tell you that our much-loved colleague Adrian Gill died this morning.
"Adrian was stoical about his illness, but the suddenness of his death has shocked us all. "Characteristically he has had the last word, writing an outstanding article about coming to terms with his cancer in tomorrow’s Sunday Times Magazine.
"He was the heart and soul of the paper. His wit was incomparable, his writing was dazzling and fearless, his intelligence was matched by compassion. Adrian was a giant among journalists. He was also our friend. We will miss him.
"I know you will want to join me in sending condolences to Nicola Formby and his children."
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Gill had written about his diagnosis, which prompted him to successfully propose to Nicola Formby, his partner of nearly 25 years.
In an interview with the Sunday Times the critic, who overcame dyslexia to become a writer, said he had no regrets about the diagnosis.
He said: “I realise I don’t have a bucket list; I don’t feel I’ve been cheated of anything."
He continued: “I’d like to have gone to Timbuktu, and there are places I will be sorry not to see again.
“But actually, because of the nature of my life and the nature of what happened to me in my early life – my addiction, I know I have been very lucky.
“I gave up [alcohol] when I was still quite young, so it was like being offered the next life. It was the real Willy Wonka golden ticket, I got a really good deal.
“And at the last minute I found something I could do. Somebody said: why don’t you watch television, eat good food and travel and then write about it? And, as lives go, that’s pretty good.”
Friends, colleagues and admirers have paid tribute to Gill, who was married to Home Secretary Amber Rudd in the 1990s, on social media.
Daily Politics presenter Andrew Neil wrote on Twitter: "Hired AA for Sunday Times in 1993. He never forgot what he saw as huge favour. As one of finest writers of our time, he was doing the favour."
Jay Rayner, the Observer's restaurant critic, described Gill as "a kind man and a brilliant writer".
Sunday Times political editor Tim Shipman said: "AA Gill, the writer who first made me buy the Sunday Times, the best of us for thirty years has died. Very sombre mood in the office.
"If you loved AA Gill's writing, he has one final, blisteringly brilliant cover story in tomorrow's ST magazine. Be dazzled one last time."
Incoming media editor of the BBC Amol Rajan said: "Gill was the kind of journalist who made kids want to be journalists.
"He combined extreme cool and charisma with moral purpose and range."
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