ABOUT MICHAEL
Michael Fitzalan was born in Clapham, South London where his mother had established a doctor’s surgery in a house which she filled with children. With three sisters, two brothers and a library full of books, a love of literature was imbued in him from an early age.
Their ophthalmic surgeon father insisted on the children going to the Lycee Francais near the Natural History Museum so there were many French books in the house. Michael and his elder brother (who features in ‘Waterwitch’) were sent to Moor Park in Shropshire, where they were introduced to plays such as ‘Pygmalion’ and to Dylan Thomas as well as classics like Clive Staples Lewis’s ‘The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe’.
Michael went on to become Head of School at The Oratory in Reading, where he read vociferously, from Bennet to Voltaire. Leaving school, he worked for Fiorucci before sailing around the coast of Portugal and Spain with one brother who had bought a yacht in return for a single ticket to the Seychelles.
On his return, Michael worked for his elder brother who had started up the first brewery established in London since 1900. Quickly, rising through the ranks, he became Head of Sales for the whole brewery whose customers were mainly within central London and the M25. After the brewery was sold to Gibbs Mew, Michael left London for New York, helping a friend start up a courier company. Returning to the UK to have his first child, he worked in estate agency and the wine trade before realising his vocation lay in teaching.
He gave up work for four years to train and it was whilst taking his degree that he wrote his first novel, published by Minerva Press. The Taint Gallery gained cult status for a few years as did his subsequent novel, Waterwitch. Millennium Press published ‘Switch’, and it enjoyed brief success. All these novels are now out of print. Michael went on to write self-published works that included: ‘Major Bruton’s Safari’ about a trip to Uganda for a coronation; ‘Gunpowder Guy’, in which Guy Fawkes was framed by Robert Cecil, Home Secretary and Spymaster General at the Jacobean court.
Michael’s book ‘2029’ imagines a post-covid United Kingdom where smugglers have taken over and a silver ingot salesman is accused of drowning the son of the greatest smuggler in the land. Enjoying books from a wide range of authors from Ian Fleming to Tolstoy, Michael was enchanted by the quality of writing and descriptive powers of the authors. He tries to emulate a different author in each of his books, for instance, Raymond Chandler in ‘Switch’, Fleming in ‘Carom’ and Faulkner in ‘2029’.
Michael presently lives in Furzedown between Tooting Broadway and Tooting Bec with his wife, Suzi and their son Barnaby who is training to be a paramedic. They have an ancient cat called Tigger after the bouncy tiger in Winnie the Pooh and Rolo, a phantom cockapoo and a rapscallion rascal.