My friend Liam Hanley, who has died aged 86, was a successful journalist, and worked as a subeditor on the Daily Mail, Daily Mirror, News Chronicle and Daily Herald. He joined Independent Television News in 1962.
He loved his job, but his main passion was art, and although essentially self-taught, he soon established a unique style. In 1962 he had a small exhibition at the Royal Society of Arts in London, followed by another at the Mermaid theatre. He showed regularly at the St Pancras and Camden festivals.
From 1971 he was regularly selected for the Royal Academy summer exhibitions. He exhibited most recently at the Beardsmore in Kentish Town, and Crane Kalman in Knightsbridge. In 2016 the Chappel Galleries held a major retrospective of his work.
He was the only child of Dorothy (nee Heathcote) and James Hanley. His father was a novelist, and Liam’s godfather was the writer John Cowper Powys. The family lived an isolated life in Wales, where their precarious financial situation worsened after the banning of James Hanley’s controversial novel Boy in 1934.
Liam became a boarder at St Michael’s school, near Shrewsbury, Shropshire, before moving to Wrekin college in 1946. He left in 1951 to join the Royal Marines for his national service, serving in Malta, Libya and Egypt. Returning home in 1953 he got a junior reporter’s job on the Montgomeryshire County Times in Welshpool.
Ten years later he married Hilary Rusconi, who was also working at ITN. Their first child, Francesca, was born in 1965, and a son, Dominic, in 1966. Liam remained at ITN until he retired.
In 2017 Francesca, a talented musician, died of cancer; a blow from which Liam never fully recovered. Last year he received treatment for suspected lung cancer and seemed to be recovering well, but his health gradually deteriorated. He had one final exhibition in London of small lyrical semi-abstract pieces at Abbott and Holder in August this year.
Liam was a man of infinite warmth and charm with a mischievous sense of humour. He was a wonderful raconteur who relished lively conversation. He had a profound sense of social justice and an enduring interest in politics, history, literature and art.
He is survived by Hilary and Dominic.
