This piece by Michael Hayman originally appeared in City A.M, see here You’d be forgiven for not having a moment to notice, but this is a decade that is fast running out of time. The 2010s began with the unease of the consequences of the financial crash....
This piece by Michael Hayman originally appeared in City A.M, see here Things can only get better — 1997, and not only a song for D:ream but an anthem that swept Tony Blair’s New Labour from obscurity to office. His hand-written message to the nation was “do...
This piece by Michael Hayman originally appeared in City A.M, see here “Inspire a generation.” That was the slogan for the London 2012 Olympic Games, and a memory of a moment when the capital and the country felt confident about the future. Cast your mind back and...
This piece by Michael Hayman originally appeared in the Yorkshire Post see here "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch...
This piece by Michael Hayman originally appeared in City A.M, see here “The world is not interested in the storms you encountered, but did you bring in the ship?” So wrote the twentieth-century writer of sea stories, William McFee. While the quote has some of the barnacles of...
This piece by Michael Hayman originally appeared in City A.M, see here Shrimp salad and a gin and tonic for lunch, then back to bed for a snooze. The relaxed recipe for creative genius, as told by Liccy Dahl at a literary event last week, on the...
This piece by Michael Hayman originally appeared in City A.M, see here The year is 1989. Ronald Reagan on his last day at the White House makes his farewell address. His message is one of the recovery of morale and national pride during his presidency. He puts it...
This piece by Michael Hayman originally appeared in City A.M, see here After us, the deluge. These are the words not of our Prime Minister, but from another troubled time and uttered by Madame de Pompadour, the lover of King Louis XV of France. The French Revolution...
This piece by Michael Hayman originally appeared in City A.M, see here Last week’s local elections were a democratic amuse bouche. A mere mouthful of popular sentiment, sending a message to the political elite that an offering meant to delight the taste buds has fallen as...
This piece by Michael Hayman MBE originally appeared in City A.M, see here Public morality, but private depravity – a time when keeping up appearances on the outside was very much the order of the day. You have to wonder if Brexit has turned this Victorian...