It is with great sadness that I note the passing of the great Michael Collins, a founding board member of Life Stories Australia and long-time ghostwriter, who died aged 75. Michael was a great mentor to me. When I first started as a life story writer he was often sage in understanding how clients think and how to work well with them.
Michael often told great anecdotes about his own life, but sadly never wrote his own memoir, so I’ve written an obituary for him.
Michael was born in 1949 in Dorset to John and Kathleen Collins. The story goes that his Royal Air Force father was not present at Michael’s birth, John was however said to be flying overhead at the time.
His father was stationed frequently overseas, so Michael was sent to boarding school in York at the age of 10. There he got his first paying job as a writer. He discovered his classmates would pay handsomely for schoolboy erotica. It was the beginning of a life-long passion for writing and he would rarely take a job without a writing element.
At the age of 17, he became a bobby policeman and with a youthful face, he became an undercover policeman in London’s East End. This was the era of gangster and nightclub owners, the Kray twins, both now frequently immortalised in popular culture.
“He used to walk around with his long red hair, looking scruffy and basically getting all the pimps,” wife Jane Teresa Anderson said.
“After a few years, he found it too traumatic working in the police. He got done over a few times in fights and he left,” she said.
“I wish he had written his own memoir. It would have been very good but I think he thought if he told his own stories, they would reveal too much about the police force, the undercover work and reveal too much about the other people involved,” she said.
Michael worked in New Zealand for about seven years, sometimes as a freelance reporter, before settling in Queensland around 1987. In about 1996, he travelled with his then-wife to South America and Antarctica for about a year. He worked as a photojournalist and Jane Teresa helped him get his photos published in newspapers back in Australia.
Jane Teresa was his fourth wife and was with him 23 years after a long friendship.
Jane Teresa encouraged Michael to become a ghostwriter in 2001. He became an Australian pioneer in the field of life story crafting for clients and worked full-time in that career from 2007.
“As far as fiction was concerned, he didn’t feel confident enough, even though he was a very good writer,” Jane Teresa said. “He preferred to help other people through writing their memoirs and other ghost-writing opportunities.”
Jane Teresa is a published author of books on dreams and she and Michael bonded over their love of writing.
The couple lived in Brisbane. Seven years ago they returned from a holiday in the United Kingdom and Jane Teresa felt the weather was getting too hot in the Sunshine state. She planned a short holiday in Tasmania hoping to convince Michael to live in Tasmania. Initially sceptical with his only Tasmania experience more than 20 years ago, he was unconvinced. By their return, they both felt they wanted to move to the Apple isle.
As a ghostwriter, Michael was rarely if ever credited as the author of his books but was occasionally acknowledged as he did in a book about the Fairfax family.
His first ghostwriting venture saw him in familiar territory writing about a notorious underworld figure in Queensland.
“He was such a naughty man that he also failed to pay his last payment,” Jane Teresa said.
“We had to chase him and use almost similarly devious methods, like talking to his ex-wife, to get them to pay the last installment, which he finally did, but it was a good book,” she said.
In 2022, Michael was diagnosed with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. His lungs had lost much of their elasticity making it hard to breathe. He coped by moving less and more slowly. Doctors believed he had the condition for about two years.
Still, Michael remained a volunteer for his Bellerive Parkrun and often greeted some 300 runners as they crossed the finish line and recorded their times. Michael was also one of several rotating Run directors for the event. When Jane Teresa returned to Parkrun after his death, the organisers made a speech about his passing and they observed a minute’s silence.
He also continued at Men’s Table, an organisation where men meet once a month and, as Michael said, they were not allowed to talk about “footy and shit”.
“They have to talk about their emotional stuff and their real lives, and they have to listen to each other, and not fix each other,” Jane Teresa said. She said the group had recently acknowledged Michael’s leadership.
For his 75th birthday, Michael and Jane Teresa travelled to Cambodia to visit her son, Euan Grey. When Michael returned, his health declined and he needed a wheelchair inside the house.
“It was very tough for him,” Jane Teresa said.
“All he could do was sit at the computer and write and he kept writing and finishing his clients’ books right up to the last four weeks before he died,” she said.
Michael was a mentor to many of Life Stories Australia’s members, where I am currently the president. He often had sage advice, gave us a sense of pride in our work and encouragement to keep going. He was kind and had a wicked wit at LSA forums where members share their working experiences and hear guest speakers.
Michael was Life Stories Australia’s only Tasmanian member. To the end, Michael wished to remain on LSA’s mailing list even though he could no longer take clients.
In September, after an emergency at home, Michael was taken to hospital. There he was told his wish to die at home could not be accommodated because of his medication requirements. He died peacefully on October 10, 2024 in palliative care with Jane and Euan at his side.
He leaves behind his partner Jane Teresa and three stepchildren Sarah-Kate Cortese, Rowan McKeown and Euan Grey.
Fair thee well, Michael