Mike was born in Plymouth, England, and moved to Adelaide, Australia, in 2010.
His first picture book, Olivia’s Voice, was a CBCA Notable in 2018. Later that year, Vanishing, a book that discusses animal extinction, was published. Bad Herbert arrived in 2020. Let's Build a House, the first book in the Let’s Build series was published by Hachette Australia in April 2021, followed by Let's Build a Backyard in 2022. His first YA novel, What We All Saw, was published in May 2022 by Penguin Australia and was shortlisted for the 2022 Readings Prize, the 2023 CBCA Older Readers Book of the Year and the 2023 Prime Minister's Literary Award (Young Adult). The Christmas Train was published by Little Hare in October 2023.
In 2024Where is Cheeky Monster? came along, going on to win the 2025 Speech Pathology Award (birth to 3 years). One by One They Disappear was published by Penguin Australia and Highly Commended in the Victorian Premier's Literary Awards (Young Adult).
Mike has written and published several books of nonsense poetry, has had some work highly commended in magazines and contributed to various anthologies.
In 2023 he was awarded Honorary Membership of The Children's Book Council of Australia (South Australia). He is also an Ambassador for the SA Premier's Reading Challenge.
Mike owns and helps to run a bookshop, Shakespeare's, in Blackwood, South Australia. Each year he writes a poem with the CBCA Book Week theme as a title. In 2017 and 2022 he was one of the main organisers of the Adelaide Festival of Children's Books.
He also works full time as an engineer and is a black belt in Tae Kwon Do. He is married with two grown up children, three cats and Holly the Bookshop Dog.
Mike has very little time to sleep, but often thinks up a poem or two while he does.
