Ahead of Time: Birthday Letters to Mayer Hillman

In 2001, on Mayer’s 70th birthday, the Policy Studies Institute presented him with a festschrift – a book containing a series of thought-provoking letters by 15 prominent UK thinkers, academics and innovators. They were written as “a celebration of Mayer’s unique combination of qualities: great intellectual productivity and originality, tenacity in argument and in pursuing his chosen themes, and a willingness to speak truth to power”.

The distinguished authors of these letters underline Mayer’s achievements as researcher, writer and thorn in the side of the political establishment. They also seek to advance Mayer’s ideas expressed in his remarkable range of publications about transport, health, energy, the environment and city and town planning.

The letters are both collegiate in tone and universal in relevance. They sound alarm bells about climate change and environmental degradation; and they bear witness to the fact that it has never been more important that Mayer Hillman’s ideas should be taken seriously.

Contributions from:

• John Adams
• Nicholas Albery
• Anne Ashe
• Ian Christie
• Adrian Davis
• Paul Ekins
• John Grimshaw
• Aubrey Meyer
• John Pinder
• Stephen Plowden
• Lynn Sloman
• Juliet Solomon
• John Whitelegg
• David Wiggins
• Michael Young

The full text is available here.