Michael claims that English was his worst subject at school; his burning ambition was to become a footballer but his dreams were never realised and he went on to study Maths and Computer Science at university.
Humour is at the heart of everything that Michael does: he sees it as the 'antidote' to his very technical and non-creative career. Michael's first book was excitingly entitled Disk Programming Techniques for the BBC Microcomputer, and finding that he enjoyed writing the jokes more than the rest, Michael decided to try leaving out the computer bits. In 1993 Michael decided to concentrate full-time on his writing (apart from when he's day-dreaming about football).
In 1997 Michael's novel for older children Weirdo's War was shortlisted for the Carnegie Children's Book Award, the Lancashire Children's Book Award and the Writers Guild Award.
