Awards (and what the critics say)       Michael accepts his DIVA award    (see below)

The poems 

"A poet of the everyday world, he is consistently good"

- Brian Patten

  "I like the humanity... the way his poems seem to be full of real people feeling real emotions"  

- Ian McMillan

"He has an ear for popular diction reminiscent of Alan Bennett. His eye for comic fiction reminds me of Roger McGough"    

-   Bradford Telegraph & Argus    

The plays 

 "As for the author's efforts at female banter, the female cast feel he has got it right!"

 - Alison Lyon, Yorkshire Evening Post, on QWERTYUIOP

"A move away from the author's quirky comedies of the past, the show features some of his blackest touches of humour but is set to be an emotional tour de force"

- Wakefield Express on The Navigator's Daughter

"The plays allow us to explore  a broad range of human emotions and characteristics"

- Carl Miller, Wakefield Express, on Table Dancing

 The prizes 

 At various times:

Short story:

Prizewinner, Wolds Words Festival short story competition

Prizewinner, Jersey Arts Centre short story competition

Prizewinner, Armagh Writers Festival short story competition

Drama

Winner of the Stanley Arnold Trophy for the play Life Sentence, at the Sheffield One-Act Play Festival, June 2009.

Arts in general:

DIVA award for Achievement in the Arts (see pic top right)

Journalism:

Award from UK Press Gazette for special edition of

The Sheffield Star on the Hillsborough Disaster

Award from RICS Newspaper Journalist of the Year section for feature on saving villages in the Derbyshire Dales