Michael Binns was born and brought up in Scotland and received an MA with honours in Mathematics at the University of Edinburgh. For a few years, he worked as a biometrician with the then Agriculture Research Council's Unit of Statistics in Aberdeen and Edinburgh. In 1967, he emigrated to Canada, where he continued as a biometrician in the Federal Department of Agriculture. During his time with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, he has travelled and consulted with scientists in many of her research stations across Canada. He is the author of numerous scientific papers and one textbook. He retired to Nova Scotia, where he has renewed a lifetime interest in history and writing. He is married and has two sons and five grandchildren.