My great interest is the history of Britain - from the ancient megaliths of Wiltshire through Roman and Anglo-Saxon archaeology to Medieval landscapes and Georgian Romantics to Vicorian industrialization right on to contemporary painting, printmaking, sculpture and architecture. I love biography, too - to explore how others have lived their lives, how they have created places and identities for themselves in the world, made interesting and beautiful things, responded to the environment around them, existed, loved and learnt. I try to reflect all of these fascinations in the books I write, the exhibitions I curate, the lectures I give and the teaching I do.

‘Haycock’s narrative of this entangled, war-defined group is so strong that it often has the force of a novel, hard to put down.’

Jenny Uglow, ‘A Crisis of Brilliance - Book of the Week,’ The Guardian (21 November 2009)