Speakers
He’s never had a proper job. Perhaps that’s because he’s spent so much of his life hanging around all the wrong places at interesting times. He was with Margaret Thatcher when she took her first steps into Downing Street as Prime Minister, and he was there again with John Major when he was kicked out. Inbetween he got bombed in Brighton and banished from Chequers, and during the dull moments he wrote a book called “House of Cards”. One Chief Whip said it had done for his job “what Dracula has done for babysitting”. Born in 1948 on the same day as Prince Charles, Michael has a doctorate in nuclear defence studies, was Chief of Staff and later Deputy Chairman of the Conservative Party. He was also Deputy Chairman of Saatchi & Saatchi. Michael has been a BBC TV presenter and a columnist for The Mail on Sunday.
Yet it’s as an author that he has gained most plaudits. After creating the iconic figure of Francis Urquhart he has gone on to write a series of novels about Winston Churchill that had the critics falling over themselves in praise. Now he’s created the most dangerous character of his career, Harry Jones. As the Financial Times said, “think Die Hard with a stiff upper lip.”
He is a highly skilled raconteur and is much in demand for corporate and literary events. He has also helped raise tens of thousands of pounds for charities in recent years.
