Mick Hamer has been a journalist for more than 35 years, mostly writing for news-stand magazines as well as contributing to Fleet Street papers. For most of this time he was New Scientist’s transport consultant. In 2001 he was short-listed in the Syngenta science writing awards.
Transport has been the focus of much of his journalism. He covered major public inquiries into the King’s Cross Fire, the Clapham rail crash and the Zeebrugge ferry disaster for several national media organisations.
His latest book is A Most Deliberate Swindle. It is a major work of investigative journalism. For the first time Mick reveals a massive swindle that not only relieved Edwardian investors of their nest eggs but also continues to pollute the air we breathe. It was published by RedDoor in September 2017 and in May 2018 was named popular transport book of the year by the Railway and Canal Historical Society.
Dog-eared copies of his previous book Wheels within Wheels: A Study of the Road Lobby, which was published by Routledge and Kegan Paul back in 1987, can still be found online and in second-hand bookshops. It was, said a review in the Listener, “provocative and fact-packed”.
Before carving out a career in journalism, Mick worked for Friends of the Earth. In 1977 he became the first director of Transport 2000. He later worked on transport research at University College, London.
Mick lives in Brighton and in his other life moonlights as a jazz pianist, playing regular gigs along the south coast and in London. You can find his music website here.