After leaving school at 18 Michael joined the regular army where he stayed for five years before he turned to writing. He then became a newspaper journalist for various regional daily papers. Michael's first children's book was published in 1966 to coincide with the World Cup. He is an experienced writer of stories for children, especially stories about football and other sporting themes. He has published more than 140 books and in 1988 he was awarded an MBE for services to Children's Literature in the Queen's Birthday Honours list.
