Michael Stedman was born in Salford in 1949 and graduated from the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne after which he became a school teacher in Manchester for 24 years. During the 1980's his first book,The Salford Pals, was published, followed in the early 1990's by The Manchester Pals. He moved to Worcester in 1994, subsequently devoting his time to many projects most of which centre on the Great War's history. Since 1995 he has written numerous books on the history of the Great War including,Thiepval, La Boisselle, Fricourt, Guillemont and Advance to Victory in the Battleground Europe Series as well as Great Battles of the Great War which accompanied a Tyne Tees / ITV series of the same name. He is married to a doctor, Yvonne, and has two sons.

Unlike its near neighbour, working-class Salford, Manchester proved able to raise eight Pals battalions. Initially, these battalions were composed of middle-class men who experience before the war years was within the commercial, financial and manufacturing interests which formed the foundations of Edwardian Manchesters life and prosperity. Manchester was undeniably proud of its pals battalions; that the area was capable of raising. Seven months after their arrival in France the battle of the Somme was launched, on the fateful 1st July, 1916. On the right of the British Armys extraordinary efforts that day, the Manchester Pals were part of one of the few successful actions, taking the villages of Montauban and Mametz and making a deep incursion into the German defences north of the River Somme.