Having grown up in south London, Mike was an undergraduate at Oxford, and then went on to postgraduate study at Harvard, where he acquired an enduring interest in galaxy dynamics. After a postdoc at CITA in Toronto, he returned to the UK in 1992 to the University of Southampton, initially as a postdoc working on ROSAT X-ray imaging, and subsequently as a PPARC Advanced Fellow. During this time, he also worked with James Binney on the new edition of Galactic Astronomy -. In 1999, he was appointed to a chair at the University of Nottingham in the formation of their new astronomy group. Over the subsequent 25 years there, as well helping in the development of the burgeoning research group, he continued his studies of the archaeology of nearby galaxies, which included a long and enjoyable collaboration with Alfonso (resulting in 48 joint publications; ADS). He also became interested in hardware development, helping to design, build, commission and exploit the Planetary Nebula Spectrograph on the William Herschel Telescope. Along the way, his management roles have included a stint as head of the School of Physics and Astronomy, and overseeing the UK’s involvement in building ESO’s Extremely Large Telescope. Throughout his career, he has had a strong interest in outreach to the public, most notably as one of the founding contributors to the Sixty Symbols YouTube Channel , for which he was awarded the Institute of Physics’ Kelvin Medal ‘ in 2017. In 2024, he took early retirement; although still helping with the supervision of a few PhD students, his main involvement in astronomy these days involves playing with a telescope in his back yard and just enjoying the night sky when somewhere suitably dark.