About me

From an early age, I’ve been fascinated with understanding how things work and the world around me. One of my earliest memories is dismantling the timer on the Screwball Scramble game to see if I could re-engineer it to give myself more time to complete the obstacle course (I may have been only 6 years old at the time!)

That inquisitive nature steered me on a course in scientific academia, graduating from the University of Wales, Aberystwyth with an honours degree in Biological Sciences. For over two decades, I worked in healthcare and education as a scientist. The search for answers to nature's mysteries was never quenched, but it became overshadowed by a new quest, a search for an answer to a single question: what was my purpose in life?

I had various hobbies – playing baseball, tennis and football – and I loved the outdoors, especially trekking through forests or along coastal paths. I ran a couple of marathons, climbed a few mountains and travelled to the Arctic Circle to marvel at the aurora borealis. Every goal I had set myself I achieved, persevering through pain and self-doubt by sheer grit and an unrelenting tenacity to never give up. But still, that single answer eluded me, like attempting to grasp an early morning mist.

Every morning I sat in my bay window nook with a coffee and a book, oblivious to the passing sands of time, immersed in an imaginative world shaped by the words on every page I turned. It was during one of these moments that it dawned on me; perhaps my purpose was to give back what I took. Perhaps I too could follow in the footsteps of my favourite writers to provide countless others a moment of escapism from their everyday routines.

And so, a new challenge has emerged and I’ve started down a new path. The journey will be long and arduous, meandering and maybe never-ending. There will be obstacles and setbacks to overcome along the way, but there’s no doubt I will keep moving forward, and will not stop until my goals are complete. I’ve done it before. I’ll do it again.

Profile picture of Alvin Michael, head and upper torso in black and white.