Michael Wills
AUTHOR

Michael Wills

Children's Audiobooks
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Michael Wills was born on the Isle of Wight, UK, and educated at the Priory Boys School and Carisbrooke Grammar School. He trained as a teacher at St Peter's College, Saltley, Birmingham, before working at a Secondary school in Kent for two years. After re-training to become a teacher of English as a Foreign Language he worked in Sweden for thirteen years. During this period he wrote several English language teaching books. His teaching career has included time working in rural Sweden, a sojourn that first sparked his now enduring interest in Scandinavian history and culture - an interest that after many years of research, both academic and in the field, led him to write Finn's Fate and the sequel novel, Three Kings, One Throne. It was on a visit to New York in 2012 that Michael developed an interest in the American War of Independence. Subsequent research in Canada and USA led him to write The Wessex Turncoat, a novel about the life of a common soldier in the British Army of 1777, an army charged by the British monarch to retain the 13 American colonies for Britain. With a background in teaching he has always been interested in providing reading opportunities for children. With his in mind, Michael embarked on writing a quartet of Viking adventures for young readers. The series is called "Children of the Chieftain". The first book, "Betrayed", was published in June 2015 and was long listed for the Historical Novel Society Indie Literature Competition 2016. The second book, "Banished" was published in December 2015. Bounty in 2017 and Bound For Home in 2019. At the request of young grandchildren, Michael wrote a Viking story for children aged 5 to 9. Sven and the Purse of Silver was published in 2019. The book won a winner's medal in the 2020 "Wishing Shelf Awards". In 2021 Michael published a story called "Izar, The Amesbury Archer". It is based on the discovery of the skeleton of a man who lived 4,500 years ago. His grave and the items in it, together with clues about his life from the features of the skeleton inspired a tale about a man who died over a thousand miles from his birthplace even though he had a severe handicap. Moving from the Stone Age to the Second World War, in 2022, the author published children's books about young people who had been evacuated from big cities, to protect them from bombing. A boy and two girls swap city life for that of young farmers, but in so doing, they get involved in thrilling adventures. The award winning series is called, "Clifftop Farm in Wartime". In 2021, Michael found an eleventh century runestone outside of a church near to Stockholm airport. The carving on the stone briefly told of the story of a Viking raider. Based on this and subsequent research, Michael wrote a novel called, "For the Want of Silver". Although a lot of his spare time is spent with grandchildren, he also has a wide range of interests including researching for future books, writing, playing the guitar, and electronics.
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