* Michael was born in the Clifton district of Bristol. His father's family owned a blacksmith business in the early 1900s near Blackboy Hill in the city, the wrinkled, faded old black and white photographs of which provided the inspiration for the Larkins family and “The Forge” in "A Manner ofWalking". * He went to junior school in nearby Henleaze and moved to the London area at the age of eleven. His first serious piece of original writing was a one act play in Spanish when he was seventeen. * Michael is a graduate of the University of Cambridge (Queens’ College), where he studied Modern Languages (Spanish and Italian), and an alumnus of Harvard Business School. His working life has been in civil aviation. Married with two sons, he lives in Surrey, where he acts and directs for a local amateur dramatic society. * "A Manner of Walking" is his first novel.