Mr Michael Hadley

Michael Hadley is the Grumpy Middle-Aged Dad. Aged 50something. Hadley was born at an early age and brought up by Wolves in the heart of The Black Country.

After surviving the wilds of school in downtown Coseley, failing his A levels in a-bit-posher Sedgley, and disappointing his Dad by working in the family business in Brierley Hill, he eventually settled down with his gorgeous wife and two amazing kids on the outskirts of Wolverhampton.

With absolutely zero writing experience or talent, Hadley decided to have a crack at writing a funny book after finding out that you don’t really need to be any good at writing to be a writer as Amazon will publish anything.

Literally.

Hadley’s first foray (nice word) into writing was his cobbled together collection of blogs, snappily titled "Grumpy Middle-Aged Dad – Adventures in Orlando". In this book, Hadley (why am I writing this like I don’t know myself? Everybody knows this is being written by me) blogs his way around the best-known tourist traps of Orlando, including all of Mr Disney’s finest Psycho Parks and a few trips to see Mr Universal. Oh, and donated all the profits to charity.It did ok and loads of money went to two great charities as a result.

There is no end to this man's ego so after selling a few hundred books, Hadley decided to have another go. He obviously had loads of bad jokes and seedy double entendres left over. The next book included lots of stuff about his beautiful daughter Lottie, as the two of them went back to Orlando for a Daddy / Daughter adventure. This one is called "Grumpy Middle Aged Dad (and Lottie) - More Adventures in Orlando", a title which just trips off the tongue...

This time, the profits go to Meningitis Now, and if you read the book you will know why.

The final foray (can't use that word enough in my opinion) sees our chubby hero jet off to California with Missus H, pre-pandemic, where they enjoy an adults only (non-pervy - means just without kids) trip to the original Disneyland in LA, before crossing the good 'ol U S of A and spending a week in Orlando. A few days visiting Mr Disneys French cousin in Paris closes this book, and brings it all up to date post pandemic.

As before, all proceeds go to two wonderful charities - Meningitis Now and the Leukemia Appeal Fund in Dudley.

At the end of the day, Hadley’s having a go so fair play.

It’s better than not bothering (but not much) and goes to show what can be achieved with almost no talent, lots of spare time, a good laptop and an abundance of cheap alcohol.