Michael Lewis was born in 1949 and grew up in Belfast, where he went to school. His father, the subject of this book, was a refugee and his mother was a Holocaust survivor. After reading Modern Languages at Oxford, he trained as a teacher at York University. He taught in 4 comprehensive schools in England for 35 years, the last twenty of which were as the headteacher of King Edward VII School in Sheffield.
After retirement in 2008, he took on a variety of roles, including as a non-legal member of the Employment Tribunals (2010-2024), as a member and sometime chair of the Independent Ethics Panel of South Yorkshire Police (2015-24) and as a member of the Teaching Regulation Agency's professional conduct panel.
In 2009 the University of Sheffield awarded him an honorary Doctor of Letters in recognition of his contribution to education.
He married Petra in 1979 and they have two sons and two grandchildren. Flight from Prague is his first book.
