Michael Cobley was born in Leicester, England, but for all of his teenage and adult years has lived in or near Glasgow, Scotland. Having a Scottish mother and an English father has given him an uncommon insight into the richness and vitality of life and culture on either side of the "border", and led to a strong belief that what unites us is more important than what divides us.

In 1988 he sold his first professional short story, "Waltz In Flexitime", to Robert Holdstock and Chris Evans for the Other Edens II anthology. He had already had several short stories published in the SF small press, and had also self-published and distributed freely a polemical broadsheet, Shark Tactics, to the SF community. A series of stories in a dark, more cyberpunk character appeared after 1988, leading to the publication of "Corrosion" in Interzone in 1992 (reprinted in the Czech magazine, Ikarie). After almost (but not quite) selling a space opera novel in 1993, he turned to more domestic concerns, while still writing a few short stories. In 1995 he began work on the background that would lead to the Shadowkings epic. Since then he has had yet more short stories published, mainly in the small press, with the wildly extravagant "With CoAxe In Tibet" most recently appearing in FOCUS, the writers magazine published by the British Science Fiction Association.

Michael's reputation thus far has been mainly that of an SF short story writer and critic, so the publication of a fantasy trilogy may come as a surprise those acquainted with his earlier work. He himself sees no contradiction in this since he is a great fan of both SF and fantasy, and has several well-worked out ideas for science fiction novels ready and waiting for the right moment.

Biography provided by the author, October 2001