Michael Bergen was born in England and grew up in Canada, though he has lived in Europe and South Africa for most of his adult life, and it was here that The Rutherford Chronicles first sprang to life.
 
History was always Michael’s first love and sparked an interest in his own family heritage. This led, following meticulous research, directly to his writing of The Rutherford Chronicles, a series of four books based on the lives of his ancestors, their friends and families and the broader world in the turbulent years of the early to mid 20th century, and culminating in the final novel, based on his own experiences during the Cold War of the second half of that century.
 
The Rutherford Chronicles follow the lives of ordinary people thrust into extraordinary circumstances, and events controlled by their much better known and more powerful contemporaries on all sides of the conflicts, many of whom are referenced within the pages of the books.
 
Book one, Empire Discovered, begins during the Second Anglo-Boer War in South Africa and continues into British India.
 
Book two, Empire and War, takes place in the trenches and German POW camps in WWI.
 
Book three, Empire and Tyranny, is the story of a soldier of the Canadian Artillery during WWII.
 
The last book, Empires Lost, follows events during the Cold War, based on Michael’s own experiences during the later years of the 20th century.