Michael Marnewick grew up in a house full of books and a family of readers. His mother passed her love of reading on to him and his two siblings, a passion she got from her mother, Mary Kennedy who was Head Librarian for the province and a code cracker in World War II.

Having read thousands of books (many of them more than once), it was only natural that he would one day write, even if he wasn't very good at it at school. Indeed, he was a very reluctant writer of prose.

Sport has always been central in his life, although a childhood bout of Perthes Disease which limited his physical activities for two years taught him the value of solitude and how to enjoy it.

Later in life, he would enjoy such rich pickings on the job market as an illegal construction worker, a skivvy in a London Pub, a timeshare salesman and a pig farmer.

Life is indeed colourful and tough, but it's what we do with it and who we take along for the ride that will guide us.

Michael has been fortunate enough to gain insights into sporting success (and failure) through his interaction with some of the sporting greats this country has produced as well having worked with or for a number of local and international media and sporting organisations. Since 2001, he has written in excess of 7000 sports articles published across various media (internet, magazine and newspaper).

The last ten years have been spent intimately involved in a professional sporting body (The Sharks rugby team) in his capacity as website editor and working with organisations like SA Rugby, the International Rugby Board (IRB), the Lions Rugby Union and Media Officer for The Sharks on Super 14 tour. His sporting journalism background goes back to the late 1980s and included soccer and boxing along with rugby, contributing to the Witness and Mercury newspapers, Sharks Magazine, Test and Provincial Matchday Programmes and having his own work widely quoted in various newspapers and websites in South Africa and abroad (www.rugby365.co.za, www.keo.co.za, www.supersport.com/rugby, www.sarugby.com, www.sharksworld.co.za, www.suparugby.co.za).

With a Social Science Degree in Psychology, a keen interest in sport and his involvement with high profile sport and sports personalities, the author seeks to use these three factors to investigate and find some answers to sporting success and present them in an interesting and insightful manner.