Michael Franklin-Harris & Dawn Franklin-Harris

Michael Franklin-Harris was born in London in 1936. When four months old, he was taken to Buckinghamshire and placed in the care of a guardian, where he remained until his 15th birthday. Michael then went to live with his father in Cheshire. He completed an engineering apprenticeship and later served his term of national service in the REME. On release from the military, Michael returned to Buckinghamshire to join a Swiss precision engineering company as a service engineer and represented them in the USA, Russia and many countries in Europe as an installation specialist. While in Buckinghamshire, he became interested in history and the natural world on which subjects he wrote several essays for local publications. It was during this period that he and Dawn met.

His burgeoning literary interests took off when by chance he met and was befriended by Kenneth Hopkins in England and later Professor Howard McCord in the USA. His philosophical essay, ‘The Genesis of an Understanding,’ struck a chord with the proprietor of Carrefour Publishing, Daphne Fraenkel, that led to a friendship which lasted until her death in 1991. At that time, Michael wrote her obituary for ‘The Guardian’ newspaper. It was revealed she had made him her literary executor and, as such, custodian of Carrefour archives, which included letters to her late husband, Michael Fraenkel, from such people as Henry Miller, Anais Nin, Lawrence Durrell, Eric Blair (George Orwell), etc. The time was right for a collaboration with Alyscamps Press, Paris, to release several of Michael Frankel’s books for which the author wrote several essays. He was also asked to contribute to various publications in the USA. Dawn and Michael have been together for over 40 years. They now live in east Cheshire, UK, on the edge of the Peak District National Park. It was Dawn’s love of Australia that inspired the two trips to that country and the preparation of the manuscript for this book. Having both been married previously, they have shared five children, nine grandchildren and at the last count, eleven great grandchildren.