Michael Murray
He was born in London, UK. He left school aged fifteen and worked in a variety of jobs including solicitor's clerk, tea taster's assistant, frozen food salesman and postal worker before auditioning for the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. He graduated with a Diploma in Acting and over the years has acted on stage and film and has had a successful career in corporate voice-overs. He is a qualified teacher and has an M.A. in Education from the University of Hull.
Michael started to write whilst at primary school and was encouraged by his teacher Mr E.R. Braithwaite author of "To Sir with Love". On leaving school he wrote articles for magazines and journals and in the late 1960's he trained to be a journalist in Fleet Street. Michael has written several stage plays, some of which have been performed in small scale venues.
Michael has been writing "Magnificent Britain" since the late 1990s when he became interested in the educational benefits of Art Therapy and began blocking out a novel about a group of art therapists and their clients. This early draft metamorphosed into a completely different novel set in an English village that was participating in the Magnificent Britain gardening competition and focussed on the conflicts that arose between the villagers and the art therapists. Over time he became more and more fascinated with the back story to the inauguration of the Magnificent Britain competition and particularly with the characters of Sir Maurice Brearley and his biographer Nigel Lush.
By 2010 the novel had reached 1200 pages and Michael realised that it could not contain all these story lines. He divided the novel and focussed on the character of Nigel Lush and the consequences of him unearthing Sir Maurice's secrets. Magnificent Britain was published in February 2012 and Michael is now working on the other half of the original novel which he is intending to publish later in the year.
Best wishes
Cathy
