Michael Amherst was born in Cheltenham in 1983. He studied English at Exeter College, Oxford, where he was awarded an academic scholarship and later gained an MA in Creative Writing from the University of East Anglia.

He has worked for the Liberal Democrats, the Prison Reform Trust and is now engaged in research on the problem of rape in UK prisons, in tandem with JUST DETENTION INTERNATIONAL. Michael is also Chief Executive of charity AVONBROOK PROJECTS ABROAD. 

He became a Trustee of the literary journal THE WHITE  REVIEW, in 2011. He lives in Oxford.