Listen free for 30 days
Listen with offer
-
Pour Me
- A Life
- Narrated by: Dougray Scott
- Length: 6 hrs and 43 mins
Failed to add items
Add to basket failed.
Add to wishlist failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
99p for the first 3 months
Buy Now for £12.99
No valid payment method on file.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Summary
A. A. Gill's memoir begins in the dark of a dormitory with six strangers. He is an alcoholic, dying in the last-chance saloon - driven to dry out, not out of a desire to change but mainly through weariness. He tells the truth - as far as he can remember it - about drinking and about what it is like to be drunk.
Pour Me is about the blackouts, the collapse, the despair: 'Pockets were a constant source of surprise - a lamb chop, a votive candle, earrings, notes written on paper and ripped from books' and even, once, a pigeon. 'Morning pockets,' he says, 'were like tiny crime scenes.' He recalls the lost days, lost friends, failed marriages.... But there was also 'an optimum inebriation, a time when it was all golden, when the drink and the pleasure made sense and were brilliant'.
Sobriety regained, there are painterly descriptions of people and places, unforgettable musings about childhood and family, art and religion, friendships and fatherhood and, most movingly, the connections between his cooking, dyslexia and his missing brother.
Full of raw and unvarnished truths, exquisitely written throughout, Pour Me is about lost time and self-discovery. Lacerating, unflinching, uplifting, it is a classic about drunken abandon.
Read by Dougray Scott.
More from the same
Narrator
What listeners say about Pour Me
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Jon F.
- 17-03-24
Moving story mangled by the narrator
The narration was so poor - pacing just plain wrong, no sense of Adrian’s emotional state and schoolboy level mispronunciations made it virtually unlistenable. I had to stop after an hour. I’ll read the book instead and try and get a refund.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- "the_gentleman_of_the_bush"
- 29-06-20
Great Story, Horrible Telling...
If you want to read this then I would recommend the physical copy. Mr. Dooogray Scott's narration must have been done in a single take because it is listless and, as many people have said, full of errors.
Fascinating author though. Can't fault the content.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Jodycbc
- 26-04-23
Sublime
This is a taught, unflinching and visceral account of a fragmented life. Not a word too long making sense of a life in two halves: one well remembered, one shattered by alcoholism. Lurches between philosophy and self deprecation without ever sounding preachy or indulgent. So many perfectly weighted paragraphs, this should be a standard text for those wanting a career in journalism or writing.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- David Brooks
- 03-09-23
Simply Brilliant
I really enjoyed this story and for me, the narration by Dougray Scott was perfect.
The quality of the writing is incredible.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- cashmere
- 22-04-22
superb
Thoughtful and lyrical narration of a full and complex life. AA Gill, a journalist that WILL be remembered.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Amazon Customer
- 06-11-22
every word hits
fantastically narrated by Dougray Scott. I couldn't stop listening. A beautifully descriptive memoir of a not completely beautiful life.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- CPK
- 15-04-23
Gripping, hilarious and mellifluous
An exploration of existence through the lens of a complex life. Gill’s writing is in its finest form, yet I can’t think of examples where it is anything other. Perhaps it’s more appropriate to say it’s just writing in its truest form: reflective but righteous; uneasy and caustic; honest yet hilarious.
I found Scott’s narration leaves a bit to be desired; mispronounced words and incorrect emphasis means some very powerful passages culminate in a whimper rather than crescendo.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Rachel Redford
- 15-08-17
'Every long, hallowed word'
Michele deserves to be named and credited for this, and all of Adrian Gill’s writing. Gill is severely dyslexic, writes on screen and then dictates it all to her. If he leaves it on screen for more than a couple of weeks, he can’t interpret it. This memoir isn’t really a book as a consequence, it’s a kaleidoscopic torrent of engaging, witty, always engaging, disorderly, dictated experiences which may or not be true, anecdotes and musings. This makes it particularly successful on audio. Dougray Scott’s spot-on narration rattles along at high speed, but he mangles many words and his attempt at French (louche, raconteur…) is rubbish. A pity.
Words are Gill’s life blood and this memoir is led by words and not chronology as he darts about from childhood (born in the hospital where Burke and Hare sold their corpses; learning the ‘kiddy patois of internment’ at his boarding school for dyslexics; failure at art school (where the life model’s ‘histrionically hideous’ scrotum dangled to his knees); failure at various jobs including in a Soho sex shop; years of alcoholism until stopping drinking at aged 30 (having been told he wouldn’t see Christmas if he didn’t); years of brilliant journalism; the disappearance of his chef-brother (still a source of deep anguish); the birth of his children and his visceral love for them (very moving); his religion (finding transubstantiation in oil and egg becoming mayonnaise)…. It goes on and on.
Similes (many 30 words long or more as the words spill out like lava) pour out from Gill as generously as he once poured the drink down his throat. Although they can be overdone or just silly, they usually make you laugh. The copy editors discuss sex (one described being ‘shagged by a minaret’ ); the Tatler editor’s smile is ‘like a string of pearls breaking into a urinal’ ; snobbery is like ‘peeing in your pants.’ He’s full of garnered facts – did you know humans are the only species who can eat and make eye contact at the same time?
There are some brilliant parts: one which had particular punch and insight for me was the impassioned talk he gave to a group of dyslexic children - the English language is ‘bigger than any god ever imagined’; words are ‘subtle as dew on a web’ – showing them that they CAN access its riches. Gill certainly has.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
8 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- K. Sewell
- 31-07-18
Sobering
I love AAGill's way with words, and his own story is no exception. Amazing that he managed to bring himself back from the brink with no remission for the rest of his life. Smoking 60 a day is telling of his addictive personality and most likely contributed to his final illness. If you enjoyed his stark writing, this book will make you both laugh and cry.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Mark
- 04-08-17
A Man of Letters reflects...
Wistful and poignant with great passages of warmth and humour amidst the sadness. His parents, his brother and the Tatler stand out. Also, the war reporting. The depiction of alcoholism is gut wrenching like watching a train wreck.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful