Michael Arditti was born in Cheshire and educated at Jesus College, Cambridge.

He began his literary career writing plays, of which several were produced on the stage and the radio, including THE VOLUNTEER (National Youth Theatre 1980), THE FRESHMAN (National Student Theatre Company 1984), SOMETHING TO SCARE OFF THE BIRDS, (Radio Four 1985), THE CHATELAINE (Radio Four 1987), and THE FAMILY HOTEL (Radio Four 1991).

He has written theatre criticism for the Times, Sunday Times, Daily Mail and Sunday Express, and was, for many years, a regular reviewer for the Evening Standard. He has contributed to the Dictionary of National Biography, the City Secrets series, and theatrical anthologies. He currently reviews books for several papers and is a regular broadcaster on the BBC.

His novels are THE CELIBATE (1993), PAGAN AND HER PARENTS (1996), published in America under the title PAGAN'S FATHER, EASTER (2000) and UNITY (2005). His short story collection, GOOD CLEAN FUN was published in 2004. His fifth novel, A SEA CHANGE, was published in September 2006.

Michael Arditti was awarded a Harold Hyam Wingate scholarship in 2000, a Royal Literary Fund fellowship in 2001, an Oppenheim-John Downes Memorial Award in 2003, and an Arts Council Award in 2004. PAGAN'S FATHER was short-listed for the Lambda Literary Award. EASTER won the first Waterstone’s Mardi Gras Award and was short listed for the Creative Freedom Award. UNITY was shortlisted for the 2006 Wingate Jewish Quarterly award.

In May 1939, the St Louis left Hamburg for Havana, carrying almost a thousand refugees from Hitler's Germany. Over the following weeks, the ship criss-crossed the ocean, buffeted alternatively by hope and disappointment, as it sought asylum in a friendly port and war drew inexorably closer.

Based on actual events, Michael Arditti's enthralling new novel is the memoir of one of the passengers, fifteen year-old Karl, heir to a department store fortune. He recounts both the horror and the excitement of the trip, along with his personal voyage of discovery, as he learns the truth about his family, battle's Nazi crew members and plans a mutiny. Most momentously, he describes his first, passionate love affair with the beautiful young Johanna.

`Brilliant use of a momentous journey . . . A gripping and adroit fusion of history with personal drama' - Rose Tremain

`A moving and heartening story in which spirit triumphs over political barbarity' - Edna O'Brien