Michael Tappenden attended Sir Joseph Williamson's Mathematical Grammar School in Kent, England, achieved post graduate qualifications, became a Member of the Chartered Society of Designers and Principal Lecturer at the University for the Creative Arts. In between he also worked within a gang of Irish labourers, dug potatoes and picked hops in the fields of Kent, worked as an assistant grave digger, a gardener, and joined the Parachute Regiment of the British Army (including a tour as part of the United Nations peacekeeping force in a civil war in Cyprus and time in the mystical deserts of the Middle East as well as involvement with the Veterans Charity) He also found time to practise as a graphic designer and to play the tenor sax with more passion than expertise and to drive very fast cars at Thruxton circuit. At the evergreen age of seventy one, he decided the time had come to write his debut novel 'Pegasus to Paradise.' The explanation for this robust CV, probably lay with his father, Ted Tappenden who, soon after midnight on June 6th 1944, landed by glider deep within enemy territory to capture what was to become known as Pegasus Bridge. The first Allied action of D-Day. His critically acclaimed novel looks at that action and at the mental damage caused by war to both the combatants and their families. His second novel 'A Long Dark Rainbow' again looks at relationships but this time at the issues surrounding new relationships in later life (much later life) that are often seen as embarrassing or inconsequential but which can be enriching despite the possibility of dark secrets, the spectre of sex and determining the rules.