Russell Hayes

Russell Hayes’s early career spanned 14 years of motoring journalism which included What Car? and the London Evening Standard. There were a memorable few years as a researcher script writer and director on the original Top Gear show (30 minutes, made in Birmingham) and Channel 4’s Driven. 

Between 2003 and 2019 his writing became a spare-time activity while he pursued a different career path in the press offices of the Crown Prosecution Service, the Attorney General’s Office and the High Court’s Judicial Office. Those spare-time books were on Lotus, TVR, the Ford Cortina, the Volkswagen Golf and - a pet project - the Earls Court Motor Show, after which came his major work for Palawan Press on the Aston Martin V8 (1969-2000).

He returned to full-time motoring journalism in 2019, continuing an eclectic mix of books including Volkswagen Beetle and Bus and The Big Book of Tiny Cars for Motorbooks (USA). Magazine writing has included Vantage and currently the Aston Martin Heritage Trust's journal Aston. 

Russell now writes for UK consumer and fleet-car related websites and his history of Alpine was published by Palawan Press in 2024. He lives in London.