Michael Hodgetts was born in England in 1936 and trained as a professional quantity surveyor in London before migrating to Western Australia in 1963. His contract in WA became 17 years during which highlights were three WA born children and the Junior Chamber of Commerce National Oratory which he won with his presentation of the Mad Australians at the Battle of Beersheba - an introduction to Australian military history he is still developing. In 1967 Mike was appointed QS-in-Charge of a new QS Group in the State Works Department. It was a time of enormous change and he revelled in the excitement and opportunities for his profession in the advancement of the city and State.

He left the PWD and joined Rider Hunt Perth office in 1969, becoming Resident Partner in 1973, the year he also joined Rotary. He was President of Perth Rotary in 1979/80 after which he moved to Sydney. After some years as Managing Director of Sydney Office, Mike became Group Chairman from 1992 to 1996 and retired at 59. He and his wife Julia built a modern version of an Australian Farmhouse complete with extensive verandahs but with underfloor heating and air conditioning. It sits in 25 acres of grass and trees.

Mike had written many articles about quantity surveying and construction, but he wanted to try creative writing. But away in the country, he missed the buzz of business and people. He returned to the National Council of the AIQS to become National President and was also asked to become President of the Rotary Club of Sydney in the year leading up to the Olympic Games 1979/80.

To get a book published requires more than writing skills. It needs a commercial subject that appeals to a publisher. Mike accepted he was unlikely to produce a best seller. But like many painters, he wanted to see a finished work. So he published, privately, stories about the Hunter Valley including The Pursuit of Pokolbin and research on the pioneer surveyor, Heneage Finch. Given a website for his birthday in December 2006 it was suggested he might exhibit some examples of his output which includes:

• Book 1 1995 The Pursuit of Pokolbin
• Book 2 1996 Road to Redemption
• Book 3 1997 Eclectic Muse
• Book 4 1998 Stitches Thursday, Home Friday
• Book 5 1999 Not King Richard
• Book 6 2001 Sixth Form to Sixty
• Book 7 2002 Heneage Finch of Laguna
• Book 8 2003 Bizarre Musings of a Grey Man
• Book 9 2004 Mordreds Diary
• Book 10 2005 Journeyman Knight
• Book 11 2006 Cardinal Wolseys Boys
• Book 12 2007 Justice for Mr Finch.
• Book 13 2007 Backwards from Today, a history of South West Hertfordshire.

At Oxford in 2004, his short play The Trial of King Charles First was performed by the Summer School Class with great enthusiasm. Other subjects taken at Summer School in 1998 and recent years include Creative Writing; Shakespeares History Plays, Macbeth, Othello, Late Plays and Comedies; the Geography of Saxon Place Names; Domesday Book; World War II, the Western Front, Civil War, and Behind the Lines; Geology and Chaucers Canterbury Tales. These studies influence and are reflected in his writing.