Michael was born in 1939 and educated at Cathays High School. His working life was involved in civil engineering construction contracts of all types. Michael's greatest engineering challenge came as early as 1963 to overcome the problems on a section of the most formidable contract his company had. The Blackrock Section of the A465 Heads of the Valleys Road was an engineering nightmare. As the section engineer, he was responsible for construction of the carriageway... blasting a large quantity of rock from the narrow gorge and overcoming a major geological failure. It was a truly memorable opening day when Michael witnessed traffic flowing unhindered between Abergavenny and Brynmawr. His first novel, From Dingle With Love was inspired during three decades of working for an Irish Civil engineering company. The company was mainly manned by wonderful characters from Co. Cork, Sligo, Galway, Tipperary, Kerry, Limerick, etc. On many occasions, Michael told his wife of everyday occurrences explaining how ingenious they were to ease his problems. Carol made notes of many occasions and persuaded him to write a novel when he retired.