To be in the public eye is to be disliked.

To be in the Public Eye is to be despised

John Lanchester argues that to be in the public eye in Britain today is to be enmeshed in a thick web of stories, of versions, of arguments, of allegations, of headlines and, perhaps especially, of dislike.

We don’t like those set in authority over us, and they can find that difficult to take, because they are a needy lot, our rulers, and they expect us to be grateful or, at the very least, understanding.

It’s hard for them. Since we so manifestly aren’t grateful, or understanding, they feel a strong need to tell their version of their own story, to restore the complexity and inwardness to the public version of selves which, very often, exist purely as caricature