Michael Collins (writer and broadcaster)

Michael Collins (born 12 February 1961) is a British author, journalist and television presenter.

Collins was born in Walworth, south east London, England. He attended Archbishop Michael Ramsey comprehensive school in Camberwell. In 1977, as part of the Great Education Debate, the school was the subject of the Thames Television documentary Our School and Hard Times.[1][2] That same year, aged 16, he left school and trained as a bespoke tailor.

Throughout the 1990s, he worked in television production as a scriptwriter and producer. During this time he wrote the Channel 4 documentaries The Battersea Bardot (1994)[3] and The National Alf (1994).[4]

His book The Likes Of Us: A Biography of the White Working Class[5] won the George Orwell Prize in 2005. The book was serialized in The Guardian [6] and became the Channel Four documentary The Biography of the British Working Class,[7] which was written and presented by the author.

In 2011, he wrote and presented The Great Estate, a documentary about social housing in the UK.[8] broadcast on BBC4 and BBC2.

His BBC4 documentary on suburbia, Everyday Eden: A Potted History of the Suburban Garden[9] was broadcast in April 2014.

Collins has contributed to BBC TV's The Culture Show and The Politics Show as well as Radio 4's Start the Week,[10][11] Woman's Hour, Saturday Review and The Long View.

He has also written on television, film, new media, politics and history for numerous newspapers and magazines, including the Observer, Guardian, Independent, TLS, Sunday Telegraph, Prospect, New Statesman, Literary Review, Wallpaper, French Vogue and The Sunday Times.