Born in England and raised in Canada, Michael has spent his adult life in Europe and South Africa. Michael’s father was a Canadian soldier who met his wife, an English girl, in Croydon, south of London during World War II.
Michael emigrated to Montreal, Quebec, with his mother when the war ended, and there he grew up. After a stint in the military and his university studies, Michael spent a year back in Croydon, worked in London and explored the UK with his wife. He then moved to Heidelberg, Germany, where he worked in medical research, learnt German and explored Germany, Scandinavia, Switzerland, Austria and northern Italy for seven years. Afterwards he spent three years working in Paris and got to know most of France and Spain. Following another stint in Germany, Michael moved with his family to Johannesburg, South Africa. He travelled the length and breadth of Africa’s southern tip from South Africa to Zimbabwe, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia, Lesotho, Swaziland (now Eswatini) and Mozambique. Up to now, Michael has visited more than 44 countries, 300 cities and countless towns and villages worldwide.
An avid freshwater angler, Michael began fishing with his father at the age of four on the St Lawrence river, including ice fishing. He went on to fish in rivers of the Laurentian Mountains in Quebec and along the east and west coasts of Canada, the Florida Keys and the Shenandoah River in the U.S. He has fished north of the Arctic Circle in Norway and south of the equator in Kenya, Mauritius, South Africa, Namibia, the Okavango River of Botswana, the Zambezi River of Zimbabwe and Lake Victoria of Kenya. A lover of nature, Michael has also spent quiet time in the Laurentian Mountains, the Alps, the Pyrenees, and the Drakensberg Mountains of Southern Africa. The nature reserves throughout Africa have always been for him a beloved destination.
In addition, history has always been Michael’s passion. Not surprisingly, it led to an exploration of his own fascinating family heritage. Years of extensive research culminated in his writing The Rutherford Chronicles, a series of four books based on his ancestors’ lives, their friends and their families in the turbulent years of the 20th century.
Michael’s diverse background, combined with his zest for life and voracious curiosity, forges in The Rutherford Chronicles a moving saga of unsung heroes and tempestuous times.
Michael G Bergen websit
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