Michael Cannon

I was born in 1958 in East Kilbride. I attended the local primary and comprehensive secondary. I left school just turned 17.
I became an apprentice engineer and left after a year. I then became a trainee Tax Office in the Civil Service, something I was truly terrible at. I found the work both intensely boring and difficult. Then there were a number of occupations too numerous to go into in any depth. I worked on a building site till laid off because of approaching winter, and then for a local council painting lamp posts. I took all the money I had out the bank went to America, returning when the money ran out. East Kilbride was ringed with industrial estates so I'd just go to the employment exchange, tell them I'd do anything and wait for a phone call. I was only ever unemployed for days at a time.
I finally got a job working up in the Sullom Voe oil terminal in the Shetlands. I stuck it out for over a year and returned to attend a Further Education College. I then went to university to study English Literature.
After university I took whatever casual jobs I could until landing a job with Strathclyde University, predominately negotiating intellectual property contracts. I still work there, the two previous novels I've had published and Lachlan's War written after hours.