Michael Fry was educated at Oxford and Hamburg. He has been a visiting fellow at Strathclyde and Brown universities, and held other international fellowships.

His books include Patronage and Principle, The Dundas Despotism and The Scottish Empire. A popular history, How the Scots Made America, was recently published in New York.

He has also written numerous articles and pamphlets on modern Scottish history. He has contributed to most major newspapers and has been a weekly columnist for The Scotsman, The Herald and The Sunday Times. He lives in Edinburgh.